Review: Girl Talk @ The Ogden Theater

Greg Gillis (Girl Talk), the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania DJ sensation, opens with Play Your Part, the first mash up on his latest album, Feed the Animals. A steady stream of toilet papers falls from the ceiling covering half nude Michael Phelps’ and every slutty _______. There is a symbiotic relationship between the crowd and Gillis, both bolstered by the other’s energy. Much to the chagrin of the venue bouncers, Gillis encourages the audience to take the stage. Fans engulf him; this is the novelty of the show.

It is easy to picture Gillis as the geeky bioengineering major that he once was at Case Western University. On stage he dances wildly, freed from studying; yet, for much of the show he is crouched over his computer just like any student before a physics test.

Gillis tests out some new material to overwhelming approval. Lil Wayne raps to Weezer’s Say It Ain’t So, which makes me wonder two things: Why is this bonafide mash up artist so famous? And why hasn’t he been sued? Herbert the Pervert explains the loophole: “He (Girl Talk) creates a new genre of music,” Herbert states with such conviction that for a split second it is almost possible to take this man dressed in everything-you-hate-about-the-’80s seriously.

Labeling Girl Talk a mash up DJ is an over simplification of his talent. His timing is impeccable. Short snippets of rock classics, such as Casey Jones by the Grateful Dead, are infused with pop favorites like Miley Cyrus’ See You Again, making for one hell of a dance party.

Kanye West’s Lover Lockdown, creates a flurry of humping and grinding as inanimate skull and bones paraphernalia float in the background. Only in Gillis’ world would Sarah Palin and Borat make out (in public).