‘My Heart Goes Zoom’ Is A Rom-Com Come To Life (Review)

Standup open mic night was always the worst at the improv theater where I worked. It was held on Mondays, guaranteeing that the general public probably wouldn’t attend. The audience was composed only of other aspiring comics, who wouldn’t laugh or buy many drinks, quietly preparing in the theater before their turn onstage. But I found there was little preparation involved as most comics performed the same Seinfeld-esque material they had done last week, as if brute force and sheer repetition would elicit laughter.

But every once in a while, someone would get onstage understanding it wasn’t about simply being clever. It was about being honest. They would open up, exposing and examining a personal pain they were struggling with. Those comics were utterly captivating, making me laugh not from the gut but from the heart. It’s this public exploration of one’s struggles that Siobhan O’Loughlin provides in her solo performance experience My Heart Goes Zoom. This delightful two night experience is filled with relatable and heartbreaking laughs, even if the audience distracts from O’Loughlin’s performance.

Like seemingly every remote experience nowadays, I find myself logging into Zoom a few seconds before the show starts. I sit there expecting to hit the ground running the moment the camera turns on. Yet, once approved to join the call, I’m pleasantly surprised to see O’Loughlin giving anyone joining a shout out, welcoming them into the virtual space. This is followed by a pre-show speech from producer Dennissa Young, explaining the different levels of audience involvement to choose from as O’Loughlin turns her camera off to prepare for the experience. I make the most of this time to settle in, reminding myself (and hopefully other creators out there) how important a lobby or neutral space is in leaving the real world and entering into the world of the immersive experience.

Once everyone has settled in, O’Loughlin turns her camera on. While in the middle of an online Zoom class learning about how to make film documentaries, O’Loughlin tells the audience she finds herself falling head-over-heels for a handsome male student in her class. With having to instigate her own meet-cute with this student, O’Loughlin tells an adorable tale of romance set against the current pandemic as she has experienced it.

My Heart Goes Zoom is a modern romantic comedy come to life. At first, I sense O’Loughlin is simply leaning into classic rom-com tropes to heighten the dramatic tension and laughs. But as the experience progresses, and romantic complications arise, O’Loughlin casts audience members to play her friends. They are provided emails and text message exchanges as a script to act out with O’Loughlin. By turning the audience into her supporting cast, O’Loughlin adds credibility to the possibility that any of us could find ourselves in the middle of a cinematic rom-com experience.

Get Patrick B. McLean’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

SubscribeSubscribe

By the end of Part One of My Heart Goes Zoom, I believe we’re all destined to live romance-bound lives. But when Part Two comes around the next night, O’Loughlin masterfully pulls the rug out from under the audience. Without getting into specifics, it’s a perfect ending to a real life rom-com. What makes the ending work is O’Loughlin’s performance as she holds nothing back, openly showcasing her emotions for the audience to explore. I can’t help but relate during the end of her story, as my desire for picture perfect romance is once again proven to be an impossibility.

But as quickly as my emotions bubble up, the audience’s distracting involvement in My Heart Goes Zoom comes along to pop them. Throughout both parts, O’Loughlin encourages audience involvement through Zoom’s chat feature. While it allows O’Loughlin to have a dialogue with the audience, the audience quickly starts to leave comments for discussion among themselves in the chat box, with some of those “conversations” running throughout the entire experience. It’s possible this is done to create a sense of people talking through the movie, feeling like they can influence the action by interjecting. But does anyone actually enjoy this activity when it happens the entire time?

Perhaps the cause of my strife lies with the sheer size of those in attendance. In Part One, there were 110 plus audience members on the call (not counting Zoom accounts where a couple is watching together). I appreciate O’Loughlin’s instincts to engage the audience, a community being built that becomes invested in her romance. But when she responds to seemingly each audience member’s comment in the chat box, this feels like it goes on forever before returning to the forward motion of exploring O’Loughlin’s rom-com experience. (At the start of Part One, O’Loughlin asks the audience to guess her classmate’s name and I feared we’d never continue when seeing audience members provide second guesses after having their first guess be shot down.) Part Two fared much better as 40 fewer audience members were on the call, allowing O’Loughlin to keep the story’s momentum building to its emotionally devastating climax.

With the mixture of capturing the glamour of being the lead in a rom-com and honestly expelling her own anxiety about dating, O’Loughlin’s powerhouse performance has me laughing out loud throughout My Heart Goes Zoom. I just wished I was able to laugh uninterrupted without the constant distraction the audience provides throughout the call. Perhaps the audience could have been instructed to set their chat box to only send messages to O’Loughlin rather than everyone, allowing audience engagement to occur without overshadowing the dramatic action of the experience. But if watching all those open mics taught me anything, it’s the performer — not the audience — that keeps you in your seat, waiting to hear what they share next.

My Heart Goes Zoom performs again June 3 (Part 1) and June 16 (Part 2). Admission is pay-what-you-can.

NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!

In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.

Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.