People have said really nice things about us...
(are you a press person that would like to say nice things about us? Yay! Then please go here...)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reliving Women's Fears of V-Day Can Cause Panic (New York Press blogger, Victoria Moy, philosophically deconstructs our show): February 15, 2008 Reliving Women's Fears of V-Day Can Cause Panic I celebrated Valentine's Day last night by going to Viva La Diva, a "caburlesque show" at Ars Nova hosted by Bridget Everett. I admit, I'm still new to all this female empowerment through performance thing. So I was amused when Mel and El did a hilarious dance and song number that loosely parodied Madonna's "Vogue," singing "F-A-G + Magnet= I'm a Fagnet" explaining their miraculous phenomenon of attracting gay men with their fagremones (pheremones). But I also felt frightened when I heard what sounded like vengeance in their voices. I felt the same way as I watched Daiva Deupree of Two Girls For Five Bucks do her sketch of a desperate dumped girlfriend on her cell calling her ex at a bar on Valentine's Day. It all had a little too much emotional honesty that hit a little too close to home. While others laughed, I couldn't help but feel this was an actual re-enactment of what I've seen countless times in real life with real women. We can pretend to laugh at so-called hyperbole, but the sad thing is it really isn't hyperbole, and our laughter's a disguise for panic. So do women really want or need to see the horrible things society does to women replayed on stage? A good portion of the audience were gay couples. The women who were there were there with men. I was with my friend Eric, a free-spirited hippie who had frolicked down the street on our way to the show saying, "It's Valentine's Day, what a wonderful holiday, love is in the air!" Naturally, in his high spirits, he found the show "great and joyful and humorous." He thought the "beauty" of the show lay in the women's ability to address real issues and be able to laugh at them. But as a woman, I found it difficult to be able to laugh freely, it only seemed to be dredging up my own anxieties. I did definitely feel something happening during the show...I couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly until a man waiting in line for the bathroom said, "It's sexual liberation here because they're taking control and power of the sexual dynamics." Maybe in this pretend space called theater. And no one said catharsis is supposed to be easy.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York Press - February 2008 DESPERATE ASPIRING HOUSEWIVESTwo Girls for Five Bucks returns to spread Valentine tragedy
By Andrew Marantz When I realized that Two Girls for Five Bucks was going to be a two-woman comedy show about dating foibles, I was wary. Not that I have anything against women, or dating, but I do find it troubling that so many all-female shows are all about men. Call me new-fashioned, but it seems to reinforce the patriarchal notion that the most interesting thing about women is how they relate to men. Indeed, throughout most of Two Girls for Five Bucks, men were the elephant in the room. In their mash-up of storytelling and sketch comedy, Cathleen Carr and Daiva Deupree play a parade of pathetic characters, all of them young women; they moon over men, throw themselves at men and long to be completed by men. In one pantomime sketch, a barren spinster ogles her neighbor, shouting, "I will marry you so hard!" "Independent Woman Part I" this was not. And yet, Two Girls eventually won me over. The characters were neurotic, quirky and engaging, and Carr and Deupree committed to them with bracing energy. Ultimately, although the show revolved around relationships with men, the women on stage were the most interesting thing. Carr and Deupree are at their best when they take off their costumes and play themselves. In two storytelling segments-one about how their parents met and one about how they lost their virginity-the two girls use their comfortable charisma to elicit belly laughs. I've never seen The Vagina Monologues, but I'd imagine this is what those monologists would sound like after swallowing a Xanax and a funny pill. Not that the stories were particularly racy; in fact, they were almost wholesome. Some of the biggest laughs came from innocuous details, like what song was on the radio. The show's website describes the experience as a "hilarious romp of loneliness, insecurity, and desperation." This is hardly a motto of empowerment. But at least it's their desperation. And at least it's entertaining.
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Missbehave Magazine - January 15, 2008 Props to 2 Girls for Five Bucks...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Variety - January 11, 2008 A mention in Variety...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gotham Magazine - December, 2007 "Sketch comedy is never a sure bet, but when it's good, it can be amazing - and these gals always deliver."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sound of Young America - June 5, 2007 Two Girls for Five Bucks was featured on the June 5th podcast of The Sound of Young America.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Hilarious - May 20, 2007 Cathleen and Daiva were interviewed by the wonderful ladies at Hello Hilarious. Read it here!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jester Journal - December 8, 2006 Aspen Martins Two duos and a solo performer perform top-notch sketch shows as they aim to make the cut for the US Comedy Arts Festival The sketch comedy duos Kevinda and Two Girls for Five Bucks presented well-written shows clearly ready for bigger stages -- if they aren’t there already -- in a HBO/US Comedy Arts Festival showcase (the festival itself will be February 28-March 4 in Aspen, Colo.) held at the People’s Improv Theater in New York on December 8. As both their shows play out, the duos reveal underlying layers in their material as they tell their stories. “Two Girls for Five Bucks,” Daiva Deupree and Cathleen Carr, score most in their show with two comically unlikable friends who grew up together and now work in human relations together, in bits parceled out in segments over the course of their show. They start hosting a bachelorette party at which they unwittingly insult everyone, and from there goes on to their relationship bumblings. Other sketches in Deupree and Carr’s show play off being sexy, sure, but are also well written. In two takes on the same idea, a spurned lover stalking her ex, Deupree’s works better and is a highlight of the show -- she’s leaving a long obsessive voice mail and then sees him out with another girl. Another plus for this duo is the one time they use a short film, it’s for a piece that couldn’t be done right just on stage -- at least not in a black box theater with not much scenery. Fortunately for New Yorkers, this city is the duo’s home base, giving us more chances to see them, and they’re definitely worth seeing as well.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Boston Herald - October 19, 2006By Sean L. McCarthy
Cathleen Carr and Daiva Deupree met years ago through Improv Asylum, and they’ve returned to Boston and IA with a limited engagement show of their own that deserves your attention. Their aptly-named “Two Girls For Five Bucks” began its run Oct. 5 and continues at 10 p.m. Thursdays through Nov. 9. They begin simply enough, sitting next to each other, facing the audience and describing what they’ve learned about love from their parents. Whether true or not, it’s no matter. They ably set up the rest of the show through this opening confessional, playing off of each other throughout various sketches about love and relationships, with Deupree’s characters invariably wilder and carrying more psychological and emotional baggage. The show has nice pacing, building throughout Act One to a winning Platoon climax. And their chemistry is great. Whether they’re acting out awkward conversations with ex-boyfriends or imagining the scenario for loooonely war brides in WWII, these two know how to co-exist in a scene, allowing Carr and Deupree to shine equally. Many duos don’t sustain such balance, instead prompting you to wish you could see one more than the other. Both Carr and Deupree commit to their characters and scenes with such abandon that you willingly go along with them for the ride. A recurring skit about two wholly inappropriate employees from Human Resources gets progressively crazier, to good effect. A couple of “silent” scenes show they can generate laughs without getting too chatty, although when they do let loose, their personal stories about their first sexual experiences and their lack of magical expertise are both humorous and heartfelt. It’s all thoroughly enjoyable. And as the title says, only $5. Actually, it’s FREE if you go to the 8 p.m. IA Mainstage show that same Thursday. So what are you waiting for?
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The Boston Metro - August 3, 2006By Nick Dussault
(click image to read the review)
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The Boston Metro - February 14, 2006By Nick Dussault
(click image for the full story)
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The Boston Globe - February 9, 2006By Sarah Tomlinson
The name says it all when it comes to "Two Girls for Five Bucks: Valentine's Day Massacre." The show's creators, Boston-based Cathleen Carr and New Yorker Daiva Deupree, got their starts as mainstage actors at Improv Asylum before breaking off to do their own show, with which they hope to revolutionize the idea of what female comedy is all about. The result revels in all the indignities of dating, with humorous skits and scripted stories of Carr's and Deupree's own romantic woes and personal lows.
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The Bostonist - December 15, 2005By Giulia Rozzi Cheap Girls (and They are Funny, too)
Cathleen Carr and Daiva Deupree explore the darker side of lady-likeness in "Two Girls for Five Bucks". Born just over a year ago in Beantowns backyard, Two Girls for Five Bucks has since expanded to New York City but returned home this month for their first annual Two Girls for Five Bucks, Holiday Pageant." Last night, Bostonist was lucky enough to be at the Improv Asylum (where these two ladies are also main stage alums) to witness what Carr and Deupree describe as a collage of lonely ladies who do desperate things. The show rolls right into funny. Literally, Carr and Deupree enter as dateless skating teens at the roller disco left to slow dance with each other. Each sketch introduces the audience into yet another familiar female: the desperately unstable cat-loving divorcée, the sadly obsessed ex-girlfriend leaving tearfully awkward messages on her old beaus voicemail, and perhaps our favorite: the duo of never married ladies from Human Resources who are drunkenly exposing themselves at the office holiday party. In between sketches, Carr and Deupree break character to casually share their personal tales of losing their loves, their virginity, and their cool, revealing the real life inspiration for their show. Indeed, art does imitate life. Without self-deprecation or cliché, Two Girls for Five Bucks presented an honest and intimate look into the hopeful yet fanatical mind and heart of the modern single woman. Deupree put it best when in talking about her upbringing noted, I was raised neurotic enough to be funny. Yes, funny and smart. This intelligent anti-chick flick buffet is not exclusively endearing to just females; the boys will appreciate the refreshing and insightful twist on modern womanhood. "Two Girls for Five Bucks could just be what makes Jerry Lewis start to like female comics. If Wal-Lex ever re-opens, wed like to take Carr and Deupree on a date, until then Bostonist will eagerly await another scheduled performance. Two Girls = five bucks. The ability to laugh at loneliness = priceless.
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The Boston Phoenix - December 2, 2005Editor's Pick for the week of December 2, 2005:
"Sick of all the candy canes and ready for a Christmas dose of crass? Improv Asylum vets Daiva Deupree and Cathleen Carr have just the thing: an original comedy called Two Girls for Five Bucks and labeled 'a Christmas pageant.' Tell that to Jean Shepherd and Frosty the Snowman."