THE MAGAZINE

Special kudos go to Lori Funk and Ric Sechrest for performances which anchored the atmosphere of the play, allowing the rest of the cast's acting to flow seamlessly from scene to scene. Funk gave what I consider a tour-de-force performance with a kind of focused presence which compelled me to award her my most acute attention.
Jay Reisberg - Culture Catch

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STIFF

I loved Lori Funk's bombastic drunk, Hilary Doyle-Blake, the wife of the dead critic. She commanded the stage with the force of shifting tectonic plates.
Jacquelyn Claire - Stage Biz

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...and especially Lori Funk as Blake’s drunken harridan wife, whose comic chops and physicality may rival Carol Burnett in her early years.
Alexandra Bonifield - Critical Rant

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THIRST: A SPELL FOR CHRISTABEL

Enid (the personable Lori Funk, who was so terrific in "Looking for the Pony" this year) turns out to be something between a wicked-stepmother figure and an all-out demon.
Anita Gates - New York Times
 

LOOKING FOR THE PONY

When the health-insurance-company lady (Lori Funk) and the patient’s lawyer (Debargo Sanyal) in Andrea Lepcio’s top-notch "Looking for the Pony" do battle, spontaneous applause tends to break out. The lead characters’ moral perfection is offset, sometimes hilariously, by the assortment of men and women played by Ms. Funk and Mr. Sanyal.
Anita Gates - New York Times (CRITIC’S PICK)

 

The cast of four includes the versatile Debargo Sanyal and Lori Funk, who flesh out multiple characters, alternating satire with heartfelt sincerity. Notable are Sanyal’s comic turns as Dr. Wroteabook, and Funk’s touching Brenda.
Karl Levett - Backstage (CRITICS PICK)

 

Everyone else in Looking for the Pony - doctors, nurses, cancer patients, rabbis, etc. - is portrayed by two apparently superhuman actors, Debargo Sanyal and Lori Funk, who switch clothes and personas with astonishing rapidity and precision.
Martin Denton - nytheatre.com

 

THREE ON A COUCH

Miriam is the show’s true comedic center, and the role gives Lori Funk the chance to really go to town ... her Miriam comes off like a less dissolute American cousin of Joanna Lumley’s Patsy on Absolutely Fabulous - a glamorous monster with a kind of undefined, all-consuming voraciousness.
A.J. Mell - Backstage (Critics Pick)

Imagine Leslie Nielsen (Mark Pinter) married to Carol Burnett (Lori Funk), with a young Richard Dreyfuss (Brad Frazier) as their psychiatrist. Lori Funk plays Marx’s estranged trophy wife like a boulder rolling downhill; once she gets started, nothing can stop her short of the curtain call.
Peter Schuyler - nytheatre.com (Critics Pick)
 

DURANG BY THE DOZEN

The third piece introduces us to the supremely gifted Lori Funk. ... Her monologue allows the performer to impressively exercise both her comic flair and her acting chops. Funk later proves herself an adroit physical comedian in the Ozzie-&-Harriet-gone-to-hell satire John & Mary Doe, and she darn near steals the show with her portrayal of a bottom-feeding TV exec in the finale, Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room. Since that piece mocks Hollywood’s corrupting influence on theater artists, I know there’s tremendous irony in my saying this, but: Get this gal a sitcom-or at least an audition for Saturday Night Live!
Adrienne Onofri - Off-Off Broadway Review (OOBR)
 

BARGAINS AND BLOOD

(FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Ensemble)

Let me say that the cast is among the strongest you’ll hope to find at the Fringe. Lori Funk, who, amazingly enough, was only cast a month ago, shines with her physical antics. You can’t watch her without thinking of Carol Burnett.
David Kennerley - Gay City Times

 

CRAZYFACE

The highly appealing Lori Funk, George Eide, and Ted Brunson stole the show as the three pulcinellas, their strong physicality and lush, sensual energy serving as a stalwart anchor to the often outlandish goings-on.
Doug DeVita - Off-Off Broadway Review (OOBR)

 

OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD

The actors all give first-rate performances, and it is difficult to single anyone out, but special praise is due Lori Funk as Liz Morden.
Lucy Komisar - Editor, American Reporter Theater Review

 

CHILDREN OF STRANGELOVE

One standout in the cast: Lori Funk as the Twinkie-obsessed Bootlicker.
Teresa Wiltz - Chicago Tribune

 

CINDERELLA

Stepsisters Mozzarella and Tarrentella are the highlight of the show ... They’re played by Amber J. Lawson and Lori Funk.
Sandy Bosch - Associate Editor, Chicago Sun Times

 

T’HELL WITH THE LADDER

More interesting are the quirky characters ... like Lori Funk’s bitchy improv teacher (a savage impersonation of a prominent Chicago figure).
Adam Langer - Chicago Reader
 

NAUGHTYVILLE

Naughtyville is a Romeo and Juliet-style love story ... featuring creepy David Lynchesque characters (Lori Funk’s homicidal Mamie Ruthmore is a standout).
Miriam Jacobson - L.A. Weekly

 

TRUTHS AND A LIE

(one woman show -- full review)

In absurd real life situations, two phrases come immediately to mind: "If it weren't' true, it wouldn't be so funny," and "You just can't make this stuff up!" Both of these come to mind when watching cabaret comedienne Lori Funk's hilarious one-woman show, "Two truths and a lie", and could serve as subtitles to her show, which she performed at Don't Tell Mama this past weekend. Funk weaves a semi-autobiogrpahical tale along a thread of mostly truths mixed with the occasional lie in a non-stop journey from childhood to where she is today, through the eyes and voices of other characters, real and fictional, from her life story. To further stir the pot, her poster declares that her "lies aren't nearly as original as her truths," and that, my friends, is truth in advertising.

 

Funk is cut from the same cloth as a litany of great singing comediennes, from Martha Raye and Nancy Walker, to Kaye Ballard and Carol Burnett, the latter of whom she most resembles with her elastic expressions and comic characterizations. Music director Steven Katz kept the narrative on point, while director Warren Kelley kept the pacing brisk without sliding off the rails. One minute Funk is sultry Catwoman, the next, a wood-splitting lesbian, completely transformed with only minimal help from props or costumes. Adept at both monologue and song, she uses both to great narrative, comedic and dramatic effect, having you doubled over with laughter one minute, and wiping away a tear the next. If you think Funk is hiding behind her humor as most comics do, you would be very wrong. In fact, while you are splitting your sides, you hardly realize that very slowly, Funk is shedding layers, like Salome doing the Dance of the Seven Veils, until, by the end, she has laid her life bare, and touched each and every one of us with her disarming trust and honesty. You just can't make this stuff up.

John Amodeo - contributing entertainment correspondent to Cabaret Scenes Magazine and Edge Publications