Benjamin, who co-penned the Pudding show Romancing the Throne with Larry and brother Mark, says Harvard’s influence on her husband is still clearly visible.
“He approaches it with the same enthusiasm and risk-taking as the stuff he was doing at the Pudding, with the same insanity and sense of humor,” she says.
There are similarities in O’Keefe’s works, from Mo Rocca’s serious Pudding moment, to his earnest-yet-absurd Bat Boy and his new tragicomic project with David Shiner.
“It’s the story of a clown who hates being a clown and wants to play Hamlet.” O’Keefe says. “He wants to be a real artist and he gets a new agent, who is of course a new agent of the devil…a sort of Dante’s Clown Inferno.”
Why should Harvard students see Bat Boy? O’Keefe laughs.
“You can come see the mind of a Harvard guy at work and you can either cheer him on or you can say, ‘He’s a fucking idiot!’”
—Bat Boy plays at the SpeakEasy Stage in Boston until Jan. 25.
—Staff writer Michelle Chun can be reached at chun2@fas.harvard.edu.