http://www.nytimes.com/20...3STAN.html


Rob Riggle, right, tutors Jonathan Schneider in "Straight Plan for the Gay Man."

February 23, 2004
TV REVIEW | 'STRAIGHT PLAN FOR THE GAY MAN'
Acting Straight for a Day, or How I Learned to Belch
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

hat we're going to do is invite you into one of the greatest straight-men traditions of all times," Rob tells his protégé in a deep, Elvis Presley-tinged baritone. "Firing a gun for no reason."

Rob and three other lifestyle advisers demonstrate how to pass as straight: hang out at an indoor shooting range and quote a famous line from a Clint Eastwood or James Bond movie while squeezing the trigger. Their client, Jonathan, a New York fashion buyer, picks up a .44 Magnum, aims and snarls, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

A deathly silence follows. Finally, Billy asks in a pained monotone, "You just did `Gone With the Wind,' didn't you?"

"Straight Plan for the Gay Man," on Comedy Central tonight, is an inversion of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the hit makeover reality show that started on Bravo and is now also on NBC. Unlike the Bravo show, in which five gay men help a hapless straight man find his inner metrosexual, these advisers help gay men rediscover their outer alpha male. And like the original, the parody is a one-joke conceit that manages to have legs.

Sticking closely to the "Queer Eye" formula, "Straight Plan" is as engaging as the show it mercilessly mocks. It is also funnier, which which is not always the case with satire. Partly scripted, partly improvised, "Straight Plan" works because the four straight consultants, all comedians and actors, are engaging; theirs is a deadpan routine reminiscent of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in "The Blues Brothers." The humor never gets too cruel or homophobic; the joke is as much on the straight buffoons as it is on their gay clients, shown as good sports who can often get the last word.

So far Comedy Central has ordered three one-hour episodes, and each "man mission," as the makeover artists call them (they call themselves the Flab Four) is similar yet just different enough to hold viewers' attention. Like "Queer Eye," it is possible to watch more than one episode of "Straight Plan" and still be amused.

The four advisers are as crude and slovenly as the Fab Five are sophisticated and sleek. Rob, "the culture guy," is a tall, stern taskmaster; this actor and comedian is a former marine. Billy, "the appearance guy," is good-natured and burly. (Jonathan describes him on the phone to a friend as a "John Goodman type.") Jonathan says that Kyle, the smooth, leather-jacket wearing "information guy," looks like Shaft. Curtis, "the environment guy," is friendly despite his deer-hunting jackets and hats. Together they ramble around New York in their "straight mobile" a black Dodge Ram 3500, making rude noises and telling stupid jokes on their way to teach a gay man how to pass as straight for a day.

As on "Queer Eye," each client introduces himself in a first-person video biography. Jonathan explains that he works in the fashion industry and wants to see if he can pass as a straight blue-collar worker. As they watch the video, the men assess the challenge ahead. "This guy is clearly fabulous," Rob observes.

"Über fabulous," Curtis adds.

They meet Jonathan, who is not an actor, in his all-white Upper East Side apartment full of flowers, Lalique and a collection of Limoges teacups. When a French country armoire is opened to reveal an 11-inch television, Rob is appalled. "Oh, c'mon," he hollers. "They've got bigger TV's on JetBlue."

The advisers decide to mold Jonathan into a meatpacker. Each episode includes a mock-documentary. In Jonathan's case the clip is a facetious look at the history of meatpacking in America, illustrated with what looks likes snippets from a 50's industrial film.

On the second episode the men are charged with helping Steven, a Broadway dancer who poses in pearls and a thong in his introductory video, learn how to pick up women as a straight man would. An important tip, they explain, is never really to listen to a woman when she speaks. "I'll tell you where you went wrong," Rob says after a practice round in a bar. "You were making friends." He spells it out: "You don't want to be listening. While she is talking, you just play out the rest of your weekend, things like that."

While Billy takes Steven shopping for shabby, ill-fitting pants and T-shirts inscribed with mottoes ("It gives the ladies something to read while they're looking at you"), Curtis combs through his dainty, cluttered apartment, throwing out objets d'art and replacing them with junk dug out of trash bins or the back of a truck.

"We run into this a lot — toys and knickknacks," Curtis tells the camera as he sweeps everything off of a bookshelf. "Obviously those and the books are going to have to go."

STRAIGHT PLAN FOR THE GAY MAN

Comedy Central, tonight at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9 Central time

Nick McKinney, executive producer for Borderline; Lou Wallach, executive in charge of production for Comedy Central.

WITH: Curtis Gwynn, Billy Merritt, Kyle Grooms and Rob Riggle.

OMG, I gotta see this.....

HOTT