All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can't Pass the Vetting

‘All-Nude’: A shock to the system, it’s not
By Stephanie Merry
Friday, July 20, 2012

In case the verbose title of her show isn’t a clear indication, Lisa Faith Phillips is trying to get a rise out of you with her autobiographical, one-woman production, “All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass the Vetting.” She appears to want to shock audience members with her lurid tales of multiple arrests, heroin-induced vomiting and post-collegiate stripping. And yet, none of the anecdotes is nearly as titillating as the middle-aged blonde in a sparkly black dress seems to think. It could be some sad indication of how much raunchy chatter we encounter on a daily basis, but a story about getting arrested -- especially when the crime is taping promotional posters to plywood -- doesn’t stupefy so much as lightly entertain.

And some of the stories are amusing. Phillips’s somewhat colorful life has led her to put some funny twists on conventional wisdom, including, “Keep the cow, just sell the milk” and “Men are not that picky.” But her stories don’t necessarily prove the point of her show. Her excuse for telling these tales is to demonstrate that she could never work for the federal government, because, as her title indicates, her past disqualifies her. But with degrees from the London School of Economics and Wellesley, the former vice president of a publishing company could easily do what everyone else in Washington does and keep those skeletons in the closet. As long as she doesn’t tweet nude photos of herself, she should be just fine.