Tony Mendoza’s 58! A Comedy About Bike Messengering 2006 International Fringe Festival Reviewed by John Harris Photographed by Mary Blanco

Welcome to Tony Mendoza's nightmare!   You see them whizzing by you on the street.  Sometimes they almost run you over.  They are abusive, angry and foul mouthed, but in a real way they are part of the life blood of any city and without them cities would screech to a halt.  They are bike messengers. 

One of the Fringe Festival's offerings, simply called 58!, gave us one week in the life of  Chicago bike messenger Telly Mimosa, played by real life messenger Tony Mendoza who also wrote 58!.  Mr. Mendoza, who play's drums for Second City and is a faculty member of Chicago's Annoyance theater, also has a band called "Let's get out of this terrible sandwich shop."  He started “messengering” six years ago and has incorporated many of his experiences and verbatim exchanges into 58! 

Staged very simply, the only real prop in the play is Tony's track bike, which in real life, was his actual work bike.  The play opens with Tony waking up to the sound of the radio on Monday morning.  He sleeps on a futon and does not seem particularly enthusiastic about starting his day.  Perhaps this is because anything can happen in a day in the life of a bike messenger.  Mr. Mendoza has surrounded himself with a very talented supporting cast of improv actors who deftly stream on and off the stage in a variety of character parts.  Tony is variously subjected to abuse and derision by a Napoleonic security guard, a Lamborghini-driving-punk, a creepy foot fetishist who pays him to smell his shoes, an obnoxious office jock who walks around squeezing a football and a coke-sniffing-harpy who babbles incoherently between sneezes.

Tony Mendoza

Thea Lux is Tony's romantic interest and the two of them generate some genuine chemistry as they struggle to create a relationship amidst all of this chaos.  Most if not all of the incidents in the play actually happened.  Mr. Mendoza's reactions to the pretentious people around him are scathing and droll at the same time.  His last line of defense is his sense of humor, which allows him to remain somewhat sane.

A sample of Mr. Mendoza's humor may be found in the in the following excerpt from the song entitled " Bike Lane":

Every time I'm on a ride there seems to be a car
In the bike lane
And if you don't watch out you'll have a brand new scar
In the bike lane
You're in the bike lane

Traffic is a drag, it's a dopey goat
So be sure to block the way with your blimpy boat
In the bike lane
You're in the bike lane

If your window gets shattered look at my U lock
You're in the bike lane
And the shards cut your throat no need to be in shock
You were in the bike lane

A gushy gushy gash and some teeth in your lap
You're losing so much blood you're going to need a nap
In the bike lane
You're in the bike lane

If your wife has my cock in her healthy mouth
And she screams my name and cums, don't pout
You're in the bike lane
The paramedics saying that it looks awful dire
Especially when you're trapped in a car on fire
In the bike lane
You're in the bike lane

Noel Coward it isn't, but funny it is, especially with Mr. Mendoza's dry and ambivalent delivery.

For years this often misunderstood subculture has been depicted with varying degrees of success.  Quicksilver, one of the most ludicrously inept films ever made, starred Kevin Bacon as a fallen trader trying to "find" himself as a bike messenger in the go-go eighties.  Even Lawrence Fishburne, playing a stereotypical thugged-out homeboy, could not save that turkey.  It is a miracle Mr. Bacon's career survived.  In the mid nineties, a messenger sitcom staring Adam Goldberg called "Double Rush" actually proved to be well intended and funny.  But It was never given a chance to develop and was cancelled after half a season.

Alex Fox as the coke-sniffer, Andy Hobgood as foot-fetish guy and Dan Jessup as the football-squeezing-corporate-ladder-climber all have unerring instincts when it comes to comedy.  Mr. Jessup's versatility was especially striking; he definitely has a gift for physical comedy. His bit as the Segway riding cop was hilarious.

Patrick McKenna’s direction was swift and efficient, there are few dull moments.  We are looking forward to hopefully seeing more from the Common theater at next year’s "Fringe".