Dominizuelan Dishes Up Comedy At iO

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 29, 2010 4:40PM

We'll admit we didn't know what we were getting into when we decided to see Dominizuelan's "People in the City" show at iO last night. It's Tall Hispanic-Short Hispanic's first scripted show, and both performers are female. For some reason we assumed the performance would be all about Hispanic women. We assumed wrong.

Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo comprise Dominizuelan and perform 20 characters in People in the City. These characters play in short scenes ranging from old Dominican men playing dominos to liquored up 20-something Wrigleyville girls waiting in line at a bar. By exploring the stereotypes surrounding so many different characters, Dominizuelan takes an honest look at the bits and pieces of culture that give American cities personality. Everyone in the audience can relate to these slice-of-life scenes. If we haven't experienced these situations ourselves, we certainly know someone who has.

Now we're making it all sound so serious. It's not. People in the City is a high-energy 90-minute show with bouts of dancing between scenes and plenty of reasons to laugh. Think Facebook jokes are old? Dominizuelan pulls it off. And we especially loved the sassy tranny hooker. Oh, and the kid who stabbed his brother with the fork. The sobbing dumped girl was pretty funny, too. Okay, we're not going to list all the characters because we were too busy enjoying ourselves to take detailed notes. But we will say that even through we only saw each character for a few minutes, Dominizuelan made us feel as though each of them could be a real person. When a tall, long-haired Venezuelan female has you convinced she could pass as someone's deadbeat couch potato Italian boyfriend, you have two things: good acting and great comedy.

Catch People in the City at iO Theater, 3541 North Clark, 8 p.m. every Thursday until the end of February, $10. Dominizuelan will also be performing February 5 in Holla, Hola, Heeey (Oy Vey!), an iO show celebrating diversity. The show starts at 8 p.m. and costs $14.