Comedian Lisa Faith Phillips was working in publishing when she became intrigued by the success of self-help books that took fairly simple ideas on how to improve your life and expanded them into 300-page books, lectures and conferences. With her friend the gifted composer and pianist Ellen Mandel, she wrote a musical parody of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People called 7 ½ Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses. She checked with a lawyer friend about doing such a parody, and he assured her that under the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech a funny parody was fine.
After rave reviews “this performer was outrageously funny and successfully cunning. Devilishly clever and wildly entertaining….every line demanded a boisterous laugh.” Newyorkcool and a sold-out tour, which ended at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2008, Lisa Faith was served a summons and complaint on Election Day 2008 by the FranklinCovey Corporation, owners of the trademark for 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for trademark infringement, filed in Utah. In the lawsuit, they singled out her hilarious musical number with maracas “The Fellatio Tango.” Copyright and first amendment lawyers offered to represent her for free in the cause of freedom of speech but warned her that, in 2004, George W. Bush had signed a very onerous trademark law into effect and, if she lost, she would be bankrupt.
As much as she wanted to defend precious freedom of speech, she couldn’t afford to spend years in a lawsuit, so she settled out of court, with a permanent injunction against her in Utah!
Stunned and suddenly unemployed, Lisa thought about going to work for the Obama administration to help her country out of the worst depression since 1929, but then realized she could never pass the vetting. Her answer is her new show All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass the Vetting running at Fort Fringe – The Shop, July 17-18 and 20-22.
Drawing on her colorful past, Lisa takes the audience on a hilarious journey, from growing up in a test site for cable television through her jobs as a stripper to pay for graduate school at the London School of Economics and phone sex voice for the Penthouse phone sex line to be able to afford to work in book publishing, to a night in jail and the lawsuit. Her stories are poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. “She exudes inherent fun like a bottle of champagne. Uplifting and unpredictable, Lisa Faith Phillips should have delivered the damn State of the Union Address this year.” – Carolyn Smith, Newyorkcool.com.
All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass the Vetting adds up to an evening of sophisticated, fun entertainment.
Venue: Fort Fringe – The Shop
Performances: Purchase your tickets by clicking on the below performance you want to see:
