How it’s New York: Colin Quinn is hilariously externalizing his grumpy old man at the Lucille Lortel theatre these days.
How it’s Irish: The Quinn part of his name 🙂
Colin Quinn will have you rolling in the aisles at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the coming weeks. During this run, Quinn shares his philosophy on childhood education which he believes should include lessons in small talk. The nuances of how and when to participate in it are complicated and are not easily learned he says, but it’s importance is finite. When engaged in small talk about the weather recently, he tells the audience, his interlocutor had the audacity to disagree with him, thus, he rages breeching the social contract that the comment is not up for discussion, but instead its function being to connect two strangers in a short and sweet way.
Quinn’s delivery is very natural – like a guy in a bar with great stories one spilling into the next sometimes not finishing his sentences as the thoughts come pouring out at speed. A fantastic Shakespearean riff on Romeo and Juliet was so fast, much of it was missed and it was so good, it deserved more time and a slower pace, but perhaps that would have taken from the tenets of spoken word poetry.
The set draws on the theme of communication that the show explores with, symbols, images, and language hand drawn on chalkboards.
Quinn is not happy with our modern world. Who is in fairness? He gripes about social media, cancel culture and political correctness.
So astute is Quinn’s take on the human race, that I’m still laughing at this as I write.
“Your tax return is who the government thinks you are, your social media profile is who you aspire to be, and your browser history is who you really are.”
His observations on our many parts and how we are being told to be our authentic selves these days leads him to the conclusion that it’s not a viable option given that his authentic self is not something he should share with the world – in the battle between the grumpy tired self he portrays at home versus the friendly gregarious work self, the latter will always win.
He riffs on future crime shows set in Human Resource departments. He mimics a cop speaking into walk talkie « We have a report of mansplaining on the 5th floor ».
And in an HR interrogation room:“Did you call her shrill or was it harsh?””No, no I didn’t use either of those words, I don’t use adjectives anymore, just adverbs – usually, maybe … ».
Personifying the rise and fall of the US empire, first as the bright young thing that everybody envied, then the cocky well to do cousin that had to be listened to, and to now, the reformed bad boy full of self hatred, he pontificates about its inevitable demise and wonders about the best way to hand the power over to China gracefully. And after the fall, he surmises that when future archaeologists investigate the ancient civilization, the artifacts they will find that represent us are the likes of McDonald’s Golden Arches signs and CVS rewards cards.
This show is hilarious. At times he treads a fine line on the borders of political correctness, but deftly does so, and this is after all the job of comedians – to say the things ‘civilians’ aren’t easily able to say.
It runs until February 11th at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street, and if you need a few laughs to brighten up the winter nights, you are guaranteed to have them at this show.
