You may have seen Mason Ross before, delivering his quiet, awkward, self-conscious but always hysterical stand-up comedy. This year's Whartscape, however, saw Mason shrug off his previous stage persona to deliver a different kind of comedy as a loud, abrasive, drunk, and unhinged professor opining abut man's inevitable march to his own destruction. His performance as Mister Dizisterstriss in local playwright (and Nuclear Power Pants singer) Benjamin Beast's "At the End of Infinite Rope" was one of the shining moments in a three-day festival with 140 acts performing. Leave it to Ross to confidently deliver the maniacal rant of an overwrought lecturer with comedic timing that had us rolling with laughter, even as the message was, "We're all fucked."
