STORY: Chemistry lights fire in 'Porn for Puritans'

The Dallas Morning News - July 31, 2004

By Tom Sime

Bond between actors provides witty look into hardships of dating

It was comedy at first sight.

Leigh Tomlinson and Tim Wardell, co-creators and stars of the runaway stage hit Porn for Puritans, met as potential colleagues in a fledgling improv troupe and found themselves finishing each other's sentences – and punching each other's lines – right away.

"We were on the same page comedically, and that's rare," says Mr. Wardell.

What to do with that kind of chemistry? It was either date or start an act, and they opted for the latter. "Friends can have a falling-out and stay friends," Mr. Wardell said. "Lovers can't."

Besides, "Imagining me naked is better than the real thing," Ms. Tomlinson said.

Their rapport, and their show, developed when the new best friends began confiding in each other about their love lives. She fell in love with someone, and his marriage was breaking up. "It was an interesting time for us to be writing comedy," she says.

"It was either that or get drunk," he says.

The result of their rapport, Porn for Puritans was supposed to have a two-weekend run at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary but has been extended twice as every performance sold out. It's now set to run through Aug. 14; after that there's talk of an open-ended Dallas run or a tour.

"A lot of the bits came right out of our conversations," Mr. Wardell says of the show, which mixes sketches and songs for an inside look at dating, including "the first time at second base," a woman's idea of the perfect kiss, and the sexes' different ideas of what constitutes a deal breaker.

Mr. Wardell and Ms. Tomlinson have been attracting a mix of people, "college students and retirees, and they're laughing equally as loud," he says. Someone even brought a 9-year-old, but they don't recommend the show for kids.

But Karen Floyd of Richardson brought her teenage daughters, "mostly for the education, now that they are going through these beginning years of dating. ... I think a couple of parts were a little embarrassing for them, but overall they got the humor and I think appreciated my acknowledging their coming of age."

Ms. Floyd owns and operates the Spiritual Fitness Center in Richardson, and has sent clients to Porn for Puritans. "I've been able to recommend the show as some humor for relief."

Zelda Mash of Dallas plans to see the show again and bring a group. "We did the same thing for I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!, and that was extended for three years," she says of Theatre Three's recent hit, Dallas' longest-running play, which she says she saw 20 times.

Ms. Mash says a minister overheard her raving about the show and brought "his whole congregation" to Porn for Puritans.

"I have a very big mouth if I like something," Ms. Mash says. "This is how these things get started."