Dan Hoyle Brilliantly Brings the People Home for US to Meet!

by Corey Finnegan & Barry David Horwitz

Well, it’s time to enjoy a new gaggle of folks that Dan Hoyle has met, interviewed, and recreated from across the country. Hoyle uses his expressive face, his whole body, and his reportorial skills to bring America home to us.

Dan is the journo-theater artist so well-known in S.F. and beyond for his rubber-face, expressive presence, and remarkable recreations of Americans of all beliefs and political opinions.

Hoyle’s latest one-man show “Takes All Kinds” is a moving and timely look at contemporary America through the actual words of a diverse tableau of Americans.

Master mimic Hoyle showcases their feelings about our broken politics and broken culture. Hoyle masterfully conjures one colorful character after another, leaving us wishing that the show would go on longer than its modest 75 minutes. He gives a master class in character creation.

Early on, Hoyle introduces us to one of the show’s key themes the process of our deeply-help political beliefs leading to a tribal ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mentality. Hoyle intently chips away at this dehumanization of the ‘other.’ Dan has the amazing ability to embody the common humanity of a diverse cast of characters, with just the flick of wrist or a wrinkle of an eyebrow.

Clearly Hoyle has chosen the most remarkable and unforgettable characters from his trips through the states that exert an outsize influence in our national elections. In Florida, he attends a school board meeting in a county where the board has been taken over by members of the Proud Boys.

There, he meets a local conservative mom with a reflexive disgust for the Bay Area. “Where are you from? Oakland, California? Oh, I’m so sorry.” Hoyle drives home how isolated we are here from other folks.

Despite the often-serious tone, there’s no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments.  A Black woman in Las Vegas laments the rise of in-your-face racism in the Trump era. After Trump’s “victory” in 2016, she describes being threatened with rape by a truck full of young, raucous white guys.  She seems disappointed more than frightened: “It’s a beautiful country, it really is. Shit, I just went to a twerking class.”

In a barber shop, he plays three different Latino barbers who enjoy friendly disagreements about the 2024 election. They have to work day and night jobs and have no time to spend with their families.

Some of his interviewees make fun of Dan to his face, lovingly: “Hey, we got a hippy from Oakland here!” Others don’t trust him until he stays on long enough to prove himself. The hidden dynamic between the Journo-Actor and so many cautious but honest folks keeps the show dynamic.

Dan Hoyle, Bay Area treasure, is a Master Reporter and brilliant imitator. Hoyle knows Americans and brings them home to us, so we can understand and laugh in the company of our fellow citizens.

“Takes All Kinds” is a masterpiece of empathy, reporting, and channeling of citizens we would never meet ourselves.

“Takes All Kinds: Stories of American Democracy” –written & performed by Dan Hoyle, directed by Aldo Billingslea & Michael Moran, developed with Charlie Varon, at The Marsh, San Francisco. Info: themarsh.org – to October 26, 2024.

Cast: Dan Hoyle (playing many roles)

Banner photo: Dan Hoyle. Photos by Peter Prato