Humor With More Force Than Bombs

Before the lights go up on Mark Davis’ one-man show at Highways, we hear Bobby Seale, taped in his most radical Panther days, exhorting blacks to arm themselves in the struggle against oppression.

The stage is set for a radical manifesto. An outspokenly gay stand-up comic, Davis is righteously angry, and he’s not going to take it anymore. He believes that gays, like African Americans before them, must do battle for their civil rights in an increasingly homophobic society.

But Davis’ manifesto is of a different stripe. Realizing that humor carries more force than scatter bombs, Davis takes aim with words. He snipes with deadly timing. To put it in nightclub parlance, he kills.

Part autobiography, part wild invention, Davis’ show, which features additional material and direction by Gerard Koskovich and Doug Holsclaw, is essentially a stand-up routine propped by a shaky plot. A blur of kinetic energy, able to change characters in a single bound, Davis portrays himself as a sort of gay super-hero pitted against a nefarious arch-conservative nemesis, Rush Sheldon Helms.

Before his concept spirals out of control at the end, Davis zings in plenty of laughs along with his angry message. He’s not only mad as hell, he’s funny as hell too.

* “Faggot With a Gun,” Highways, 1651 18th St . , Santa Monica. Today-Sunday only, 8:30 p.m. $15. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.