Rollins: Talking From the Box

From punk-rock godfather to neo-Beat poet/jazz-metal banshee/stand-up comic — what a long, strange trip Rollins' career has been. In Rollins: Talking From the Box, an hour-long performance at L.A.'s Henry Fonda Theatre, the tattooed iron man jokes about fun topics like how he watched his neighborhood burn during the L.A. riots and, as a pet-shop employee, killed animals. Though he's got presence to spare, he undercuts it with lapses into Star Search-level mimickry and eventually turns agonizingly maudlin as he recounts, shrink-session-style, the murder of a friend. By this time you'll think you're watching Richard Simmons after boot camp. C