{"id":106249,"date":"2023-01-26T11:31:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T19:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106249"},"modified":"2023-02-28T07:04:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:04:36","slug":"comic-with-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/comic-with-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic jogs with a dog, finds meaning in life in \u2018He Wants to Run\u2019 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Kleinberg shares his experiences, and lessons learned, from jogging with a boxer named Butler in his one-man show \u201cHe Wants to Run\u201d at The Marsh in San Francisco. (Courtesy David Kleinberg)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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David Kleinberg, a Renaissance man who has appeared as a standup comic on the same bill as Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and Richard Lewis, is only mildly obsessed with killing.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s fond of saying that when you succeed at comedy, you \u201ckill the audience,\u201d and when you don\u2019t, you \u201cdie on stage.\u201d He adds: \u201c\u2018Kill or be killed,\u2019 as my old drill sergeant used to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleinberg was fully aware of those well-worn aphorisms as he painstakingly prepared a new one-man show. But just when he was ready to perform it in Marin, the pandemic peaked and \u2014 what else? \u2014 killed in-person performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the worst possible timing,\u201d laments the San Francisco native.<\/p>\n

Now, though, \u201cHe Wants to Run,\u201d his updated, improved monologue about a guy who doesn\u2019t particularly like jogging or dogs \u2014 yet befriends a neighbor\u2019s boxer and runs with him for almost 13 years \u2014will open at The Marsh San Francisco on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

The truth-based show \u2014 written and performed by Kleinberg, directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford\u00a0\u2014 also focuses on the pleasures and pitfalls of owning a vacation home in an impoverished area on the Russian River in Cloverdale, as well as what the pooch, Butler, taught him about dying and living.<\/p>\n

Kleinberg insists he\u2019s always preferred basketball to jogging. The 79-year-old quit shooting hoops only two months ago after getting a pinched nerve that was painful: \u201c I took it as a signal to stop \u2014 I wanted to walk off the court rather than be carried off,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But he started running at his summer place for add-on exercise.<\/p>\n

Despite his intense desire to run alone, he remembers that whenever he\u2019d start, Butler would follow and go after him: \u201cEssentially, he wore me down. He\u2019d wait for me to come out, then fly across the road, jump in the air, put my running pants in his teeth, and pull me toward the road so we could run.\u201d<\/p>\n

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David Kleinberg\u2019s latest show covers what happened to him after he took up running. (Courtesy David Kleinberg)<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As\u00a0he aged, Butler got fatter and slower.<\/p>\n

And despite their longtime connection, Kleinberg adds, \u201cThe ironic thing is there isn\u2019t one single picture of us running together. Our relationship was never about Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleinberg transitioned from comedy to one-man shows long enough ago to have created three others: \u201cThe Voice,\u201d about his sex addiction and subsequent two decades of recovery, as well as his homophobia; \u201cHey, Hey, LBJ!,\u201d about his four years as an information specialist in Vietnam (\u201cMy job was to go out with soldiers and to shoot pictures when people were shooting us\u201d); and \u201cReturn to the Scene of the Crime,\u201d about his traumatic trip back to Vietnam, where some of his buddies had been killed or wounded half a century before.<\/p>\n

On his website (davidkleinberg.weebly.com<\/a>) under the heading \u201cupcoming gigs,\u201d it says he\u2019s recently \u201cbeen hibernating in the solo theater world. We\u2019ll warn you when he thinks about returning to standup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleinberg\u2019s interest in comedy stemmed from going to\u00a0the hungry i in North Beach while he was in\u00a0his early 20s, seeing Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl and Bill Cosby. (Tangentially, his prime memories of Robin Williams aren\u2019t about his appearance with him, but the two times he interviewed him for the San Francisco Chronicle where he spent 34 years, including a long stint as Datebook editor, after starting as a copy boy at 17).<\/p>\n

\u201cI interviewed him just before \u2018Good Morning Vietnam.\u2019 It was really hot, and I agreed with him that it was \u2018a beautiful global-warming day.\u2019 The other time, we were again talking about climate, and he said about it, \u2018People are like addicts. They won\u2019t do anything until they hit bottom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After Kleinberg left the Chronicle, he and his wife Pat ran Elderhostel education-travel programs in Tiburon for two decades. \u201cWe were a great team,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI work fast and sloppy, she works slow and meticulous. We\u2019d have three courses at a time, as diverse as \u2018Operas of Puccini,\u2019 \u2018Middle East Conflicts\u2019 and \u2018French Impressionist Art.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What lies ahead? Possibly another one-man show: a dark social satire (that he started as a science-fiction novel some 35 years ago) about a 495-pound gorilla trained to play fullback for a professional football team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe Wants to Run\u201d runs Feb. 4-12 at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., from Feb. 4-12. Tickets are $20- $100. Call 415-282-3055 or visit <\/em><\/strong>themarsh.or<\/em><\/strong><\/a>g. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This story was first published on <\/i>LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News\u00a0Foundation http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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David Kleinberg shares his experiences, and lessons learned, from jogging with a boxer named Butler in his one-man show \u201cHe Wants to Run\u201d at The Marsh in San Francisco. (Courtesy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"