Long Short Story

In school, “they” told us that we should study history, or we would be doomed to repeat it.  Well, according to comedian Colin Quinn in his one- man show, we obviously haven’t been studying very hard.

In his clever, comic monologue,  Long Short Story at the Bleeker Street Theatre, the alumnus of “Saturday Night Live “ discusses the foibles of men. The framework is world history and  the rise and fall of powerful cultures.  While Quinn gives the speediest world history lesson ever (kind of a Mc History), he takes his audience on a travelogue complete with a slide show of maps and paintings of past civilizations.  Each culture is speedily dispatched with a few gibes and  commentary.  First came the Greeks who spent much of their time thinking.  They were later conquered and enslaved by the Romans (“Wadda think of that?”)

As with many intelligent comics, Quinn uses recognition to provide humor.   We laugh as he juxtaposes the familiar with the historic.  The Romans are “the tough guys,”  and the Greeks were the smart guys. Inevitably, the audience envisions the showdown in the high school lunch room.  According to the comic, The Biblical Abraham was a deadbeat dad and the Middle East conflict is really about Father issues. 

The audience laughs at his comments about other cultures  and no culture or religion is safe.  (‘Jews got chased out of every place they went. That’s why they have the same word for hello and goodbye.’ ‘In India, they believe in an afterlife, so they have the same word for yesterday and tomorrow.’)  That’s why Quinn isn’t offensive.  He digs slightly at everyone and then moves on.

The greatest source of humor, however, is in the modern day references.  When Quinn refers to Snooki , Martha Stewart and Costco,  the audience responds more readily because that’s when the audience recognizes its own own world.  Quinn and his director, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, deftly placed current references reminding the listeners that our world is certainly not lacking foibles, etc. In fact, we haven’t progressed very much.   

Quinn has a recitative style of delivery.  He seems almost serious most of the time and although he looks at the audience, seems to make no connection.