On July 22, at the historic Grove Community House, the Arts Project of Cherry Grove presented a welcome evening with comic Michele Balan, featuring Grove singer Shirley Ritenour and pianist Paul Greenwood.
Ritenour opened with Nancy LaMott’s “Listen to My Heart,” so very moving and beautifully sung, with a full high soprano ending. Ritenour and Greenwood, the latter both playing and singing, harmonized on a gentle “Up on the Roof,” the Drifters’ song, by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Ritenour’s “I’ve Got You under My Skin,” by Cole Porter, was quiet, heartfelt, and simply breathtaking. The singer dedicated an intimate, then expansive “Ain’t She Sweet” to Balan and then introduced her, with Greenwood adding strains of “The Stripper,” by David Rose, for her entrance.
Balan joked about the Long Island Medium, a recent predecessor at the House, and offered, about her girlfriend, who thinks she’s Wonder Woman, “She’s from Puerto Rico and I think Trump is going to deport her: he doesn’t know it’s part of the U.S.” Then she riffed on Melania Trump—enough said. Balan has a rent-stabilized apartment in Manhattan—“My landlord wants me dead”—with a loft bed, and a phone number one digit off from that of an animal hospital, which gets her some interesting calls.
Balan’s subsequent subjects were how dogs take on their owners’ looks and personalities, working on large cruise ships, and the price of things at Dollar Tree. On 50 Cent, “He went bankrupt—he’s now 39 Cent.” “I’m going to be a Jewish rapper—MC Matzoh,” she announced. On being pulled off lines at the airport,” “Are there a lot of 5’2” Jewish women highjacking planes?” “To Boca Raton,” she added.
She spoke of unusual drugstore items, such as “fishnet condoms” and “time-release anti-depressants,” and about losing her cellphone—often—and being asked, “Why would you have a home phone?” The answer: “So I could call my cellphone.” Aging and menopause were topics Balan warmed to—sex, too, as she declared, “I’m more excited over a parking spot than a G-spot!”