John Pavlus

It's Saturday afternoon at the Newberry Library's annual "Bughouse Square Debates," and the atmosphere in Washington Square Park--both literally and figuratively--is downright balmy. Perhaps the Debates' storied history--thirties-style carny barkers, heckling hordes, and orators with names like "One-Armed Charlie"--set expectations too high. But when the supposedly feisty festivities open with a sap-soaked tribute to ex-Guv George Ryan, the day looks less like a madhouse than a love-in.

Oh, the loons are in session, to be sure. Soapbox topics include "Why GMO foods should NOT be labeled" and something about law-talkin' "Super-Predators," and there's enough loud plaid, K-Mart khaki and cracked plastic eyewear on display that it might just be part of a standard-issue uniform. But the event's main draw--the heckling--is halfhearted at best. A few elderly regulars wheeze their boilerplate cracks, while one Gen X gadfly makes his rounds, racking up "Pickle Nickels"--heckler-encouraging tokens, redeemable for small discounts at the Newberry book fair--with the systematic rigor of a Vegas slots hound.

Some desperately needed snap later beckons as a lanky young man commandeers a vacated soapbox. Bespectacled and Birkenstocked, he comes off like a cross between Laurence Olivier and Jeff Goldblum as he half-thunders, half-stammers about "belief and skepticism." But heckled? Hell no. After parrying one jab about his mismatched socks, he finishes to earnest compliments and even a come-on (from one of the few attending under-forties). Kids these days...no respect for tradition.

(2003-07-30)

Also by John Pavlus

Dating game
Could the heyday of syndicated reality-dating shows be waning? If the turnout for "Elimidate"'s open casting call at Bar Chicago is any indication, connoisseurs of sexual schadenfreude may soon have to get their fix elsewhere.
(2003-05-28)

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