[In the following review, Franklin discusses the ambivalent position of the audience of Bogosian's Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead.]

“Hello, my name is Eric, and I'm a recovering male” is how Eric Bogosian begins one of the twelve monologues in his new one-man show, Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead, at the Minetta Lane. His portrait of this sap, who feels guilty because he can't stop having sexual thoughts about women （“I'm just a man with a penis. And for that I'm sorry,” he writes to one of the objects of his fantasies）, is one of the evening's more low-key moments, but the hangdog delivery doesn't conceal the character's rage and confusion—the two main elements that fuel Bogosian's explosively funny work. Bogosian has no intention of recovering from what's ailing him: four years after his last major show, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, he still can't shake the voices in his head—the voices of the crazy, hostile, importuning, and pathetic characters who confront most New Yorkers every day （sometimes in the mirror）.

Anyone who has ever seen Bogosian perform will tell you that he has a great ear, but he's more than a mimic with perfect pitch. His characters have got under his skin and made him ask himself “Who does this guy think he is?” and then “Who do I think I am?” Bogosian has said that he recognizes some part of himself in all his characters, and as he charges around the stage you can see him trying to work out where he ends and where other people begin, whether it's a drug dealer with disturbingly high self-esteem or a lumpish guy whose hard-won feeling that his glass is finally half full is threatened by what he sees on the evening news （“Starving Africans—they spoil everything!”）. Bogosian's sheer virtuosity puts the audience in a quandary, and he knows it: when they clap after his portrayal of a threatening man on the subway, he says, somewhat ruefully, “Polite applause for the disgusting homeless man.” The more you enjoy Bogosian's performance, the more you're forced to wonder whether you're letting him do your dirty work for you.