Fringe: Famehungry. TikTok explained and performed
“Famehungry” is Louise Orwin’s attempt to explain TikTok and demonstrate its appeal – the former intriguing, the latter excruciating. The 75-minute show is on stage at SoHo Playhouse, and also simultaneously live on TikTok, through February 8, as part of the International Fringe Encore Series.
Presented at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer, its run in New York couldn’t be more timely. TikTok, a social media app for short videos that began in 2017 and has been downloaded almost five billion times worldwide, is now officially banned by law in the United States as of last week. However, Americans can still use it for at least the next 75 days, after the new president on the day of his inauguration signed an executive order delaying the shut-down, in hopes of finding an American buyer. Congress outlawed the app out of concern that it is a risk to national security, because the Chinese government could force the Chinese company that owns it, ByteDance, to hand over the personal data from the more than 120 million Americans who use TikTok, and manipulate American public opinion.
Orwin doesn’t get into all of that, but she does delve into the culture, mechanics and mindset of TikTokers, especially in conversation (via video hook-up) with a user named Jaxon Valentine.
Valentine launched their account at age 15 and now at 21 has 80,000 followers, to Orwin’s 5,000. They talk about what works on TikTok (dancing, singing, posting every day) and what doesn’t (talking about capitalism, making jokes about periods.) We learn that TikTok will “shadowban” a user — “a term for when TikTok hides your content from everyone” – for violations that include foul language, overtly sexual imagery and the promotion of violence. Orwin also tells us – more dubiously – that you can get shadowbanned for content that’s “too political…too queer…working class…ginger” or “critical of TikTok.”
“I’ve been kicked off TikTok countless times mid-show.” Orwin says at one point. She doesn’t tell us why, but suffice it to say she doesn’t create what most people probably think of as TikTok videos – cooking shows, brief dances, beauty tips, or pet videos.
Orwin is a performance artist.
Accompanied by dangerously loud pulsating music, she launches “Famehungry” by saying hello and “ I’m just waiting for a few more people to join” – over and over and over again for FIFTEEN MINUTES. She is apparently making a point here. While she’s saying this over and over to the TikTok audience, a text projected on the screen behind her only for the theater audience says: “On TikTok anyone can be a movie star Or a pop star Or a dancer Or an expert On anything .But maybe it’s also just a lot of us watching other people do meaningless tasks. Waiting eternally for something amazing to happen.”
It also says: “I wanted this to feel as Real And True To life As possible. And when I say true to life, I mean true to the internet.”
It also says (15 minutes is a long time): “I discovered that TikTok Live is mostly people doing the same thing over and over again.”
And so that’s what we get – a true-to-the Internet series of self-indulgent actions that a fame-hungry TikToker would perform, and repeat – dancing endlessly, licking a lollipop lasciviously , dousing her head with a goopy soft drink. We see her performing on stage for TikTok; we also see it on a projection of TikTok, and get glimpses of other TikTok performers.
At the same time, we get something of a running commentary on stage from Orwin, the sort of observations and reactions an outside critic might make…that I myself might be thinking. At one point, for example, she says: “This makes me want to rip my eyeballs out.”
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