Caitlin Cook studied art history in college, and now, as a touring standup comedian and musician, she spends a lot of time in public restrooms. Through that lens on her surroundings, Cook noticed and took pictures of bathroom stall graffiti some years ago. She then used the jokes, bits of advice and profane illustrations she collected as songwriting prompts.
Those songs now form The Writing on the Stall: A One-Woman Bathroom Graffiti Musical. After a successful off-Broadway run, Cook brings The Writing on the Stall to Eugene Wednesday, Oct. 30, at Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge. The show also enjoyed sold-out dates in London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
Cook tells Eugene Weekly in a phone call that photographing bathroom stall vandalism “beautifully broke my brain at a time when I was grappling with my relationship with art history. And I started photographing bathroom graffiti everywhere.”
A woman’s restroom, she adds, “is a place where we bond and gossip and share secrets, and graffiti is where people get confessional.”
In the show, Cook plays guitar, narrates and sings about the bathroom stall graffiti (also known as latrinalia), accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and sometimes keyboards on a public restroom set, complete with a toilet on which Cook sometimes sits.
Threaded throughout are details from Cook’s life, mixed with observational humor about what the dirty jokes, sketches and doodles in public restrooms, which get projected on a screen, teach us about what makes us similar and how we’re different.
On the soundtrack, available to stream online, a song is about women’s restroom graffiti and how it’s often a positive affirmation, while men’s rooms get tagged with phallus drawings. One of which, included in Cook’s show, wears a cowboy hat and spurs.
From an art historian’s perspective, “Writing on toilet walls is neither for critical acclaim nor financial reward; it is the purest form of art,” Cook says.
Cook says the show has a narrative arc that touches on her coming-of-age story, stressing this is a one-person show and a musical rather than a stand-up comedy performance. The story also covers the social anxieties and intricacies that we go to the bathroom to hide from and how we’re all connected in these small ways if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough, she says.
These days, Cook still writes bathroom stall graffiti-inspired songs and jokes based on pictures her fans and followers submit on social media.
While doing so, she says she’s learned that “everyone is an artist even if they don’t think they’re making art. Even if they’ve just pulled a pen out of their purse or carved something into a toilet seat with their keys — they’re putting their mark on something. Sometimes, it’s an intricately illustrated phallus in the men’s room. Sometimes, it’s a word of encouragement in the women’s.”
She adds, “Overall, something is interesting about why humans feel like they can be vulnerable when they’re anonymous or in a private space like a bathroom.”
Caitlin Cook The Writing on the Stall: A One-Woman Bathroom Graffiti Musical is 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 30, at Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge in Eugene, 44 East 7th Avenue; $30, 21-plus.
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