Booth Daniels: Unconventional
January 10, 2007
By David Finkle

Booth Daniels, who looks like a Dead End Kid dressed up for a job interview, doesn't so much invite you into his world as browbeat you into it with the blaring finesse of a midway barker. Once you're inside "Unconventional," however, he has a number of surprises you wouldn't have suspected from his -- let's say it -- pushy introduction. During a recent Don't Tell Mama stint, the guy almost immediately started spilling his story, but not in a straightforward manner. He's oblique, which is to say the inclusion of Randy Newman's "Short People" is his way of letting the audience know that all the noise he's been making in the first few numbers is compensation for his size.

Musically directed by poker-faced Glenn Gordon, Daniels is the class clown out of self-defense. (This is, natch, the explanation behind 75 percent of today's comedians.) He's gotten extraordinarily deft at it. He may spend a good deal of his time shouting into the mic, but often what he's declaring is smart and spur-of-the-cabaret-moment funny. Also, the more confident he is that he's won you over, the more he eases up on the perky pep.

Toward the end of his high-powered set, he even noted that his act "is growing up." That observation had already been substantiated by Daniels' abrupt mood shift into a moving take on Randy Newman's "Marie." (The singer-comic's interest in Newman is a giveaway to his preoccupation with the off-kilter.) The Daniels hour -- during which he sometimes comes across as Sam Kinison doing Pearl Bailey -- even has an emotional arc. That's because he eventually implies his truce with life by singing Ben Folds' "Learn to Live With What You Are." The moment could have been annoyingly bromidic, but wasn't. As off the wall as Booth Daniels initially presents himself, he knows exactly what he's doing and where he's going: far.

"The other daring performer didn’t have his next gig booked for sure at press time, but remember the name Booth Daniels. He’s got an act that lives up to its name: Unconventional. I caught him in a return engagement at Rose’s Turn on Grove Street in Greenwich Village. Billed as "a cabaret...sort of..," it also has plenty of the word for which this website is named: EDGE. Presenting himself as an outsider with issues, Booth rants and raves to great effect, with tongue in cheek, as he goes through some mostly high-energy pop songs that let him show his humor and his humanity. With a few tunes by Ben Folds (he opens with a smart There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You), he’s particularly effective. He playfully tosses off many an aside that must be called snide but knows how to jeer in a way that makes his audience cheer. Also an actor, he comes off as a likeable but exasperated Everyman: one for whom you’d happily buy a gift certificate for an anger management class. But then he probably wouldn’t be so much fun. Booth could benefit from including a couple more varied tunes and serious pieces, as his handling of Randy Newman’s sensitive ballad called Marie shows he can perhaps be just as fearless in baring his soul. And I think he has the potential to use more colors and shadings in his voice; the showmanship and energy get more attention. "Unconventional" follows one of the most important conventions of good cabaret: connect with your audience by presenting what’s special about you. He’s awfully entertaining."
- Rob Lester, EdgeNewYork.com

"On Thursday, April 13th I headed downtown to UPSTAIRS AT ROSE'S TURN for the 8:00 pm show of cabaret newcomer Booth Daniels. I could not see if Mr. Daniels had "eyes of blue" but he is "five foot two" and from his perspective, life is indeed "Unconventional."… Booth is cute, clever and somehow always has a twinkle in his eye as he sings and chats his way through a rather exotic song list - most of the songs I had never heard before…This show deserves a return and a bigger audience - great vocals and most entertaining!"
- Stu Hamstra, CabaretHotlineOnline.com

"Other high points were... Booth Daniels as Moonface Martin, a wise-cracking wiseguy poorly disguised in priest's garb who provided most of the evening's laughs." - Nancy Stetson, Naples Daily News

"Daniels seems to start slowly, but as the play progresses we come to realize that he has carefully crafted his performance to maximize the effect that Sonia's character has on him. It is a brilliant and understated piece of work, and when he finally does break out of his shell, it's like watching John Cleese on speed. He has a melodic baritone and delivers his solo numbers with feeling and depth." - Tom Woods, The Citizen

"Booth Daniels, whose Lucius sounds Woody Allen at his most anxious, is one young actor who won't mind being compared to a worm." - Laurel Graeber, New York Times

"In fact, [Dominick] Varney and Daniels do a great job of making Robert and Bernard into a dynamic Abbott and Costello-like team, with Daniels taking on the less showy straight man role with great aplomb."
- David Cameron, Cortland Ticket

"Daniels gets one major speech... he has the audience rolling with laughter as he delivers it."
- Dan Bacalzo, Theatermania

"'Have I Got a Girl for You' and 'Sorry/Grateful' are also well done, kinder and gentler and attractively sung. Among the men playing the husbands on these, Booth Daniels stands out, bringing well-shaded phrasing and attractive vocal tones. "
- Rob Lester, Sound Advice - TalkinBroadway.com

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 6, 2008
POP

BOOTH AND PAT The classic showbiz tale generally has a star getting laryngitis and an understudy getting a big break. For Booth Daniels and Patrick Frankfort, it was more like this: Somebody blew off a gig, so, well, we can’t let that empty stage go to waste, can we?

Last fall Mr. Frankfort, above left, a singer-songwriter with a comic side, was booked for a solo engagement at the Mean Fiddler on West 47th Street and asked Mr. Daniels, above right, a longtime friend from when both studied musical theater at the Boston Conservatory, to provide some backup vocals. When another act on the bill didn’t show up, Mr. Frankfort, 31, and Mr. Daniels, 34, began winging it to fill the time, and the audience seemed to get a kick out of their easy, goofy rapport.

“I think through sheer stubbornness we refused to leave the stage,” Mr. Frankfort recalled. That was the genesis of the act they call simply Booth and Pat, a pairing that is part cabaret, part stand-up comedy, part improv. They have since appeared at spots including Don’t Tell Mama, and on Thursday (and again on June 27) they will roll out a new full-length show at the Duplex that they’re calling “Slow Children Playing.” Expect routines that defy genre labels. Their take on “Let It Be” starts out pleasantly tuneful, but somehow they get distracted in the chorus and toss in a sampling of every other song that ever used the same chord progression (of which, it turns out, there are a lot).

Some musing about their favorite lyrics turns into a medley of every gibberish lyric you can think of, from the “Minnie the Moocher” refrain to “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Then there’s Mr. Frankfort’s song “The Straight Girls.” It’s what a guy writes after more than one woman dumps him by announcing that she’s a lesbian. “It’s fashionable to be gay,” Mr. Daniels said, offering his sidekick some comfort as they described the origin of the song. “Or,” Mr. Frankfort replied, “maybe it’s just fashionable to date me and turn gay.” NEIL GENZLINGER

"The compact and hyperkinetic Daniels and the stringbean Frankfort wring geniune laughs from their horseplay, and they choose comic ditties they can make something of."
David Finkle, Backstage

"I kept thinking of The Smothers Brothers while watching the free-flowing but underplayed give and take between comic singers Booth Daniels and Patrick Frankfort in their one-night performance of 2 Guys. 1 Guitar. No Standards. at Don't Tell Mama. After the show, Daniels advised me with deadpan seriousness that they were more like The Smothers Brothers on crystal meth.

Daniels is the dark, slightly scruffy one with an authoritative coolness who can play the microphone like he's hiding a Casio keyboard in his mouth. Frankfort, the tall one with the guitar, has an innocent dorkiness about him that hides a lecherous underbelly. There's nary a punch line in their between-song banter yet the quirky absurdity of their chemistry, so fresh and seemingly spontaneous, is very, very funny.

Most of their songs are by Frankfort, based on personal experiences like having more than one girlfriend break up with him by saying she's a lesbian ("Where have all the straight girls gone?" he ponders in song) and the tragedy of hair loss. When the boys do get sincere with a lovely "(I Can't Wait To Fall Again) Into You" they joke how Frankfort's emo display will help him score with the ladies. They also do covers, like a Spice Girls medley performed with a fierce dedication to girl power and Ben Folds' hilariously folky arrangement of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit."

Booth Daniels and Patrick Frankfort have their separate careers in comedy, music and acting with no future dates for joint appearances scheduled as of yet. But hopefully this promising pair will be treading the cabaret boards much more frequently."
Michael Dale, Broadwayworld.com





"I must admit that my entire exposure to hip hop and rap has fallen into two categories: accidental and reluctant. So it was with a great deal of trepidation that I contemplated seeing a cabaret show where two white guys riff and snark at contemporary music. That caveat out of the way, I have to say that Patrick Frankfort and Booth Daniels are two extremely personable and talented young men with nicely trained singing voices and a dry sense of humor.

Their approach to comedy is part SNL and partly rooted in the adversarial style of the Smothers Brothers. They unassumingly bill their act as “2 guys, 1 guitar, no standards” and their appeal is infectious, particularly to the under 30 set. Pat’s self-effacing songs about dating straight girls or male pattern baldness have a wry charm. Booth scores heavily with Weird Al Yankovic’s “You Don’t Love Me Anymore,” a very funny song in which he recounts the multitude of ways his girlfriend has tried to kill him, leading him to the conclusion that perhaps her love for him has begun to wane.

Together they have an easy going rapport with each other and their audience. This is not cabaret in the classic sense, so don’t go expecting to hear a lot of old standards. But it’s a quirky, off-kilter evening that will appeal mainly to a younger crowd who’s looking to have a lot of fun."
- Jay Jeffries, CabaretExchange.com