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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Drop Dead Gorgeous (A Tragi-Comedy)

Steve Moore

HBO · 1997 · 53 min

An autobiographical hour built around an active HIV diagnosis.

Steve Moore took an actively unfolding tragedy and tried to turn it into television. Built around his experience as an HIV-positive gay man in the late 1990s, the show treats his own mortality with a stubborn dryness. He mixes stage work with autobiographical storytelling, pulling his real parents into the production to smoke medical marijuana and discussing his lavender marriage of convenience to a Canadian lesbian.

Filmed at the HBO Workspace, the set is heavily interrupted by flashbacks and sketch elements from directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Moore was mostly known at the time as a warm-up comic for the sitcom Roseanne, and the broadcast functioned as his public coming out. He talks about growing up in Danville, Virginia, and delivering newspapers to Natalie Wood right before she died. The heavy-handed editing and fake film reels frustrated some critics, including an irritated Tom Shales at The Washington Post, but the project earned a Cable Ace award and stood as a major cultural marker for HIV visibility.

The set list

1 bit

  1. Moore introduces himself as a stand-up comedian living with HIV.

    Delivered aggressively to the camera with a big Phyllis Diller-type laugh ('Ah-haaaa') followed by an extreme close-up declaring, 'Now that’s some funny stuff.'

How it plays

Tone
A mix of laughter and tears; touching, humorous, brassy, and poignant.
On stage
Described as 'a little Joel Grey, a lot Bette Davis'—feisty, challenging, brassy, and in-your-face, yet revealing warmth and vulnerability underneath.
Pace
High-energy and confrontational, highlighted by an extreme close-up delivery and a signature Phyllis Diller-style laugh ('Ah-haaaa').
About
living with HIV/AIDS, personal biography and growing up in Danville, Virginia, searching for love, homosexuality and coming out, comedy career in Hollywood

What the critics said

Praised by critics as a poignant, funny, and challenging look at living with HIV that balances brassy humor with genuine heart.

In the room: Recorded in front of live audiences; eliciting both laughter and tears.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: app.productionbeast.com, latimes.com, variety.com, publicrecords.copyright.gov, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Moore was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1989 and developed a one-man comedy show confronting life with HIV/AIDS, aiming to teach audiences that living with HIV does not necessarily mean dying.

Details

Released
Runtime
53 min
Where
HBO
Director
Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Honors
CableACE Award Nomination for Comedy Special (1997)
Topics

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