THE HANGOVER REPORT – Relentlessly seeking validation Off-Broadway: Comedian Gary Gulman shows off his smarts in GRANDILOQUENT

Gary Gulman in “Grandiloquent” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (photo by Michaelah Reynolds).

Also earlier this week, Gary Gulman’s solo show Grandiloquent opened Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village. For those of you unfamiliar with Gulman, he’s carved a fascinating niche for himself as being the thinking man’s comedian. Broadly, his latest show is set up as a sort of theatrical memoir, in which he looks way back into his past to chronicle the events and circumstances leading up, during, and after having been instructed to repeat the first grade.

Almost immediately, you’ll appreciate Gulman’s articulate and deliberately methodical storytelling, particularly as he sets the scene for the show. Indeed, he paints a vivid picture of his childhood, including obsessively detailed vignettes about his family, youthful friendships, and school traumas. As a precocious, book-loving boy — with an impressively massive vocabulary — his reaction to having to repeat the first grade is told with painstaking meticulousness and candid observation. In the process, Gulman makes the connection between shame and how it drives our motivations and long-term emotional development. All this makes way for some rather intense self-analysis, in which the comedian admits to and hilariously revels in his relentless and unquenchable quest for validation, particularly as it relates to his considerable intellect and status as a peerless cultural guru.

If you haven’t already gathered, Gulman is a unique voice in the world of comedy. He’s a slyly compelling performer who uses his immensely sharp mind and unassuming charm to hook and disarm discerning audiences. Ever-present, he engages onlookers in interesting and often surprising and unorthodox ways. Although Grandiloquent, at 90-minutes, is more of a slow-burning affair than many comedy shows out there, the pay-off for leaning in is considerable.

RECOMMENDED

GRANDILOQUENT
Off-Broadway, Play
Lucille Lortel Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 8

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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