Then, from the "Take Away" list, some customers ordered "United Air" and paid $4.25. The two men performed their idea of what United Air really is (I'm not going to spoil this by describing anything too fully).
"This is a take-away item," Matsune said after the two-minute performance, then put the props they were using in a box and handed them to the customers.
We stayed about 90 minutes, until the store's closing time, and saw people buy a dozen "products," as the two men sometimes call their art. Some came from a category called "Delivery Service," so customers not only got a performance, they'll also be receiving some memento of it in the mail. Some performances were sold out; Matsune and Subal had done them too many times that day already.
One item had them running from the store with a huge plastic sheet, an action that stopped South Street traffic for a minute. Another, which we had just missed when we came in, had taken them onto the street in their underwear. Masking tape figures into some of their performance items. In one, clothes hangers make the point.
The men offer about 70 items for sale, from under a buck to the highest one, $20. The dynamic in the store changes as customers come and go, or look in the window to try and figure out what's happening. It's a fine put-on about art, merchandising and consumerism. Do we really get what we pay for? Why do we want it? What makes it attractive? Would we buy another item from these guys? (store explores many of the themes that Pig Iron Theatre's Pay Up plumbed in a hit Fringe show three seasons back, and equally well.)
