Here is a brief survey of topics in Mike Daisey's new work, If You See Something, Say Something:

Airport Security
The Department of Homeland Security
The Trinity Nuclear Test Site
Apocalypse
The Rand Corporation
Herman Kahn
The Neutron Bomb
Pickpocketing
World War Two
George Washington's Farewell Address
The Worst Hamburger in the World

Looking over this list, you might think this performance would be a big old bummer. In fact, I'm certain it would be, in the hands of anyone else but Mike Daisey. Luckily, Daisey has an amazing sense of humor and riveting stage presence. His comic timing is honed to a fine, sharp point. In fact, if I hadn't been so amused by Daisey, I probably would've walked out of the theater in a deep depression.

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Ka-bloooooie!!

You see, after being exposed to Daisey's savaging of festival goers during Occurrence, at the Works last Tuesday night, and his current show, running until Sunday at the Winnigstad theater, I've become aware that he deals in hard truth. It's just that he does it with such humor and energy, you forget what he's saying is piecing you like a sharp needle. It's kind of like a doctor holding up a stuffed animal to distract the child receiving an inoculation. The kid walks out of the doctors office, just slightly upset, but thinking, "Hey, it wasn't that bad." But later, that little spot under the band-aid begins to ache.

Dr. Daisey isn't saying very nice things about our American experience over the last several decades. He talks about nuclear annihilation, the restlessness of standing armies, and the inefficacy of politicians who have been seduced by think tanks. Before long, there is a realization that you are learning some new things, and maybe those new things... Well, you didn't want to learn them.

If You See Something, Say Something is essentially a meditation on security: personal, national, and psychological. He is very adept at drawing the line that connects these concepts. He reveals the mistakes, misconception, and deception we fall prey to when thinking about how to keep ourselves safe, and what we agree to sacrifice in return.

Last nights show ran a little over two hours long. Being the anniversary of 9/11, there were some particularly poignant moments in Daisey's monologue. The one that affected me most, was when he reminded us of the passengers of Flight 93, who sacrificed themselves in order to "keep a bad day from getting worse." Daisey reminded the audience that this was an act performed by everyday citizens like us. It wasn't a military action. It wasn't ordered. It had nothing to do with the government. Their act was a grand act of democracy: American citizens keeping their fellows safe.

That was what I walked away with last night—a sense that we do not need government oversight to keep one another safe. Because when you get right down to it, once that kind of oversight and power is given to a bureaucracy, it has a very hard time giving that power up. And that power leads to a kind of myopia that's able to view the deaths of thousands and thousands of women and children as completely acceptable.

Then, it becomes necessary for us to walk into the crater and the fallout and take that power back.

If You See Something, Say Something plays at 6:30 pm, tonight through Sunday