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Disturbingly Hilarious

By Jessica Bryce Young
Orlando Weekly | March 27, 2007
When Cindy married Frank in the early 1980s, she thought she was getting a sweet deal: He was cute, 17 years her junior and in a band whose single was climbing the charts. Too bad that band was OXO, and the inane "Whirly Girl" was their only hit. Over the next two decades, this has-been/never-was marriage deteriorated into mutual torment. Now Frank lives in the basement, coming upstairs only to procure more wine and empty the coffee cans he urinates in, and Cindy's 28-year-old son GJ Echternkamp -- still living at home -- documents the carnage. "You'd be having an affair if you weren't so fat!" screeches Cindy, the black-hole star of this low-rent Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? You can still see the party girl she once was; she's striking even at 60 years old, with 17 missing teeth and a pill habit (really). Still, Frank may be alcoholic, dimwitted and self-deluded, but watching GJ and his mother fall about laughing at him while he grins confusedly feels like watching a bear-baiting. Echternkamp captures the kaleidoscopic nature of family interaction and exposes the less-than-admirable behavior of each player: Frank and Cindy's, yes, but also his own. It's raw, it's riveting, it's appalling and it's disturbingly hilarious.
Tags: Frank & Cindy, G.J. Echternkamp

Orlando Weekly

In America's theme-park Mecca, Orlando Weekly recently explored these themes: How a private group of developers pulled the strings that directed public land-use policies. How a millionaire time-share mogul made his money selling bogus promises. How an annual Gay Day...
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