By Sam Mooney

What do you do when you work in marketing for a text book publisher, the economy crashes, you lose your job and you need an income now? If you’re Cameryn Moore you become a phone sex operator – a Phone Whore – and then you write and perform a show about it.

Megan reviewed Phone Whore this summer and talked about the premise of the show so I’m not going to repeat it. It’s worth reading before you decide to see the show because, as wonderful as it it, Phone Whore isn’t for everyone.

Cameryn is a terrific performer, at ease and comfortable on stage. If it weren’t for the fact that the room was packed I could have felt as if I was sitting listening to a friend talk about her job.  A strange job, yes, but an interesting one.

Phone Whore is a one-person play.  It’s a drama with some very funny parts.  A dramedy for want of a better term. I say this because I overheard a couple of people saying that they thought it was going to be a stand-up routine. It’s a one hour, one act play and it passed in a flash.  I was surprised when it ended because it hadn’t felt like an hour.

I enjoyed it. The subject matter isn’t easy, some of it is very difficult, but Cameryn doesn’t judge and that encourages the audience to not judge.  Not everyone in the audience was comfortable with the show.  There was a woman sitting near me who was so obviously uncomfortable right from the start that I was surprised – and impressed – that she stayed for the whole performance.

There was an interesting Q and A after the show.  The first question was from someone who sounded as if she was planning a career change and was now going to seriously consider becoming a phone sex operator. Someone else wanted to know if Cameryn declared her income. I thought that was a very strange personal question – a bizarre reaction on my part considering the show.

A note about the room – the show was at The Flying Beaver Pubaret which opened in Cabbagetown two weeks ago – it probably is more suited to cabaret and stand-up acts but it worked surprisingly well for this too.  There’s food and drink service during the show and the staff were amazingly quiet and unobtrusive. The biggest distractions were when they had to go to the bar or kitchen.  When the door was opened the noise from the other room flooded in.  I was sitting at the back near the door.  I don’t know if it was a distraction for people sitting closer to the front.  short of telling all the people having a terrific time in the other room to be quiet there really isn’t anything that can be done and it wasn’t a big problem.

Details:

– Phone Whore played at The Flying Beaver Pubaret (488 Parliament St)
– Cameryn Moore will be in Hamilton on April 15 and in Toronto on April 16. Details are on her website.