Alan Clements is in on some kind of cosmic joke.
He calls his one-man show an existential comedy.
"I must participate in the harm of other creatures for my existence, and that's the existential comedy," he said.
Funny.
But really, he promised, Friday's show at the KiMo Theater will be funny. Clements counts among his influences the likes of Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins and Danny Hoch. "Spiritually Incorrect" is an unscripted, 90-minute monologue Clements terms "reality theater."
"People think of the stage as a place where one needs to be perfect, scripted, well rehearsed," he said. "They must be in command of their products and have a joke every 30 seconds in a regulated manner."
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But that's not Clements' style. He's not into barn-stomping rock 'n' roll, he said. His performance is more like theatrical acid jazz.
Six spiritually incorrect distinctions are the spine of his show.
"I'm proud to be religiously incorrect," he said. "If George W's relationship to Jesus is the right one, I'm on the wrong side of that."
Clements, who says he's allergic to conformity, spent 10 years in Burma living in a Buddhist monastery as a monk. He left in 1987.
The show is a benefit for Aung San Suu Kyi, formerly the general secretary of the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi is an activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She is under house arrest in Burma.
In 1990, Clements snuck back into Burma and spent six months discussing nonviolent revolution with Suu Kyi for a book he wrote called Instinct for Freedom. A gathering at her house many years ago is part of what inspired Clements to get involved in spoken word, he said.
Suu Kyi had a spontaneous gathering of 300 or 400 people at her house to protest a law that said it was illegal for five or more people to gather. One of Burma's foremost spoken-word entertainers had been released from prison two days before the gathering.
He took the stage, Clements said, though he knew what he was going to say would land him in prison for six more years. The man was arrested at the end of his performance, Clements said.
"I thought to myself, 'What could I possibly do in my life to live in this radicalism, to confront my fear?'" he said. "What would I say if I had 90 minutes left to live or 90 minutes before I was jailed?"
Clements said he doesn't script his show, because it is about spontaneity without respect for logic and reason. He said he never worried the audience wouldn't connect with him, even though he doesn't follow the standard American rules of the stage.
"My worth and my salvation are not tied into how an audience responds to me," he said.
Still, he said, the best compliment people can gives him is that he reminded them of their fire.
