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It’s an open secret that doctors of all specialties depend on their support staff of assistants and administrators to keep their delicate genius functional. They go to med school, after all, not business school, or down a liberal arts-to-medical biller pipeline.
In that sense, drag artist Svetlana Trantastic stole the show as Carla Rossi’s receptionist in the therapy-based improv show Ask Dr. Carla. Trantastic has appeared in some of Rossi’s Queer Horror pre-shows at the Hollywood Theatre, so their familiar banter lent itself well to the show’s spontaneous spirit at the Tomorrow Theater on Aug. 16.
Trantastic might just be a fake receptionist at a fake therapist’s office-slash-talk show, but she masters the art of looking busy while eavesdropping on the good gossip, just as only the best administrative assistants can. Whereas Rossi and guest expert Pepper Pepper’s Beavis and Butt-Head antics felt like a page from Gloop, their show parodying pseudoscience in overpriced luxe “wellness” culture, Trantastic held her own with her absurd ‘60s-style sponsored ad announcements, breaking character to laugh at the silliness of overselling words like “fish and milk” that belong nowhere near together.