In a series of eight monologues, Chris Harcum goes in the minds of several men and looks at life in relation to two icons, his grandmother and Batman. This was performed in Canada and the New York International Fringe Festival in 2003. 

Writer/performer Chris Harcum’s Gotham Standards is about the places we escape to so that we can live, when it seems the world around us is dying. At once, powerful and insightful, Harcum’s show is a 75-minute solo tour-de-force that is something to be seen… –Seth Duer, NYTheatre

Gotham Standards is an electrifying one-person exploration into the minds of various modern day men of all ages and backgrounds. The new work showcased a talented writer and performer in a unique show that reminded us that in the beginning of every boy’s young life Batman came first. The dialogue is funny, fresh and full of depth…Harcum displays a wonderful consistency with his talent for dialect where most of his fellow American actors would falter. –Jade Esteban Estrada, Off Off Broadway Review 

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Gotham Standards is one of the most appealing pieces of Fringe theatre I’ve ever seen. Chris Harcum possesses a uniquely unified sensibility that plays with paradox…He deploys all the best tools in the one-person-show arsenal– his self-deprecating, “we’re among friends”-type introduction then blasts into an exhilarating showcase of boldly-painted characters that sometimes directly, sometimes elliptically, circle a gnostically-strange-and-beautiful central motif. Harcum is able to be very personal, but avoids being embarrassing; the poignant moments in the midst of hard-edged comedy are never injected or contrived…Harcum is special in his affirmatives to all of the above, evidence of a richly gifted writer/performer. Gotham Standards is smart, funny, edgy, angry, silly, and sad– utterly and transcendentally human. Not to be missed. –Dalton Cormier, Chronicle-Journal

…So who was the best Batman, Chris asks his audience…Harcum has an innate gift for dialect and impression, an ability that makes every character he morphs into completely believeable, no matter how outrageous they might seem to be on the surface. Hs verbal talents are so matched by his movement skills that the audience can believe he IS all those characters, and not just an actor playing them…And Harcum’ s spot-on sense of comic timing will-even when you’re not laughing, which is often-have you smiling throughout. And you will keep smiling, albeit with a bit of mist in your eye, as Harcum’s “15 seconds” of introsepction comes to an end and he says a final goodbye…Chris Harcum has accomplished a true tour-de-force, not only showcasing his many acting skills, but his marvelous writing abilities. –Robin Chase, The Phantom Fringer