{"id":6770,"date":"2013-07-28T14:44:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T21:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=6770"},"modified":"2013-07-28T14:44:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-28T21:44:33","slug":"solo-storyteller-adds-actress-band-and-still-is-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/solo-storyteller-adds-actress-band-and-still-is-funny\/","title":{"rendered":"Solo storyteller adds actress, band \u2014 and still is funny"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Josh Kornbluth emotes about his childhood, egged on by Amy Resnick. Photo: Heather McAlister.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Josh Kornbluth\u2019s been making me laugh aloud for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

But he is changing.<\/p>\n

In 1992, he was a bald, bespectacled chubby monologist in his 30s whose intelligence and offbeat sense of humor tickled me.<\/p>\n

And made me think.<\/p>\n

Today, he\u2019s a bald, bespectacled chubby guy whose intelligence and offbeat sense of humor tickles me. And makes me think.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s 54, graying at the temples.<\/p>\n

And, in a colossal departure from his string of one-man shows, he leans on actress Amy Resnick (who does mock French and Valley Girl accents and uses a huge shawl to convert herself into God) and a four-piece band.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see, though, that Kornbluth\u2019s new material at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley is infinitely more mature than previous introspections, interweaving themes without the scruffy seams he used to display.<\/p>\n

\u201cSea of Reeds,\u201d like its title, is multi-layered.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 90-minute-plus comedy that sporadically reveals Kornbluth\u2019s earnestness and complexity \u2014 and leads playgoers to what promotional materials alternately call \u201cthe Promised Land of paradox\u201d and \u201ca story of faith and procrastination.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his latest exercise in cerebral self-pleasuring.<\/p>\n

Yet his storytelling skills make it impossible not to enjoy the impressive flip side \u2014 his thorny wit.<\/p>\n

The writer-performer draws chortles from unlikely places: having his violin ripped off by a Jewish\/Hispanic street gang, childhood Red Christmases (his folks having been devotees of Marx \u2014 Karl more than Groucho), Exodus (the Bible book, not the Leon Uris novel) and the Dead Sea (\u201ca good place to visit if you\u2019re a scroll\u201d).<\/p>\n

He draws his biggest LOLs, however, from a risqu\u00e9, slapstick oboe lesson designed by a spellbinding young temptress at camp, Monique.<\/p>\n

Conversely, he bemoans his youthful inability to make a \u201cleap of faith\u201d off a diving board at an amusement park in suburban New Yawk.<\/p>\n

The lifelong atheist segues into his decision to have an adult bar mitzvah two years ago in Israel atop a water tower in the desert \u2014 an outgrowth of an idea nurtured by his rabbi-friend, Menachem Creditor of Berkeley\u2019s Congregation Netivot Shalom.<\/p>\n

That mentor had paved the way for Kornbluth to reconcile his Communist upbringing with his cultural Jewishness by defining God with a catchall phrase, \u201cthe collective potential of the human imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite Hebrew terms and phrases being translated immediately, almost as if they were in parentheses, \u201cSea of Reeds\u201d may be too sectarian for non-Jews.<\/p>\n

And too Jewish for many Jews.<\/p>\n

Some may flinch, too, when he dismembers his designated Torah portion, utilizing exaggerated body motions and fiery word-pictures to depict its violence and murder.<\/p>\n

For those willing to remain open, his twin searches \u2014 for proficiency with his instrument and for faith \u2014 will make it all worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Kornbluth, a Princeton dropout who\u2019s been labeled \u201cBerkeley\u2019s favorite intellectual and provocateur\u201d and who formerly stressed being a luckless bumbler, indicates his director and friend, David Dower has helped him grow \u2014 while structuring the chaos of the comedian-playwright\u2019s improvisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSea of Reeds\u201d was commissioned by the Shotgun Players, which co-produced the show with Jonathan Reinis (who just won a Tony for the Broadway revival of \u201cPippin\u201d). Like Kornbluth\u2019s previous efforts, it superimposes silliness onto soul-searching.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen almost all his creations.<\/p>\n

I became something of an addict-stalker after his first big stage hit, \u201cRed Diaper Baby,\u201d where I first noticed his addiction to red socks (shades of Garrison Keillor).<\/p>\n

\u201cHaiku Tunnel,\u201d about being an incompetent legal assistant, solidified my high regard.<\/p>\n

So did \u201cLove & Taxes,\u201d about the fiscal implications of not reporting royalties to the IRS, and \u201cBen Franklin Unplugged,\u201d about his affinity for the historical figure he resembles.<\/p>\n

In \u201cSea of Reeds,\u201d Kornbluth uses an especially piquant line: \u2018This is how rabbis roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, this stretch is how he rolls these days \u2014 and I applaud it. Again he\u2019s made me cogitate all sorts of stuff. And I still find him funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cSea of Reeds\u201d runs at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby St., Berkeley, through Aug. 18. Show times, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $20 to $35. Information: (510) 841-6500 or www.shotgunplayers.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Josh Kornbluth\u2019s been making me laugh aloud for more than 20 years. But he is changing. In 1992, he was a bald, bespectacled chubby monologist in his 30s whose…<\/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-6770","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":"