Interview: Jared B Goldsmith Puts His BFA to Good Use with New Solo Show at Chelsea Table

When not posting TikToks to his more than 1 million followers, Jared B Goldsmith tends to play two types of characters: nerds and birds. This is a fact he recognizes about himself and his career, with the actor having played nerds like Jared Kleinman from Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway and National Tour), and birds like Scuttle from The Little Mermaid at Papermill Playhouse. As such, he chose to title his upcoming original one-man musical-comedy show It’s a Nerd, It’s a Bird, It’s JARED! to reflect that.

It’s a Nerd, It’s a Bird, It’s JARED! will make its world premiere with performances at Chelsea Table & Stage on March 20 and 21. Ahead of this, we had the chance to chat with Goldsmith, discussing everything from what he called the “Musical Theater Multiverse of Madness” to the Bo Burnham influence in his solo show.

Check out our conversation here:

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Gillian Blum: Congrats about the show!

Jared B Goldsmith: Thank you very much. You know, it's kind of been a long time coming. I've never done a solo show in the city quite like this, and I've been trying to figure out the right form for a while, especially with the whole TikTok, I guess fandom, or whatever you want to call it. I have a couple different shows I've been working on, but this one feels very much in line with the theater kid crowd, and the Broadway and musical parodies. And, yeah, I'm really excited.

I understand what the title, like, means — it’s the two roles that you played [The Nerd being Jared Kleinman in Dear Evan Hansen, The Bird being Scuttle in The Little Mermaid]. But why did you come up with that title?

I wanted to do a musical comedy show, and I felt like this, first of all, was, like, a really comedic way of being like, "Yeah, I play nerds and birds." And these are the types of roles I'm always going out for. Like, even last month I was going out for, like, the voiceover of, like a cartoon pigeon. Yeah, just, I'm always going out for birds or nerds. So I was dabbling with stand up as well these last four months. And I think this show … combines, kind of, part-stand up, part-music, and so it's a musical comedy show, and a lot of the stand up routine was wrapped together with the nerd and bird bit. So I was toying with nerds and birds. And then finally, I was like, "What about It’s a Nerd, It's a Bird, It's JARED?" Give it that arc of like, it's gonna kind of fly at the end.

How long have you been working on this show?

This has been about six or seven months. It actually came together pretty fast. The Chelsea Table & Stage reached out to me if I wanted to do a show, and if I had anything, and there's actually been a one-man musical I've been working on that's kind of ready to get going, but I figured it might be, first, to even step back, a step further, and do kind of a more intimate musical comedy show with a little more audience interaction. Yeah, it's been about six or seven months. I opened for Gianmarco Soresi at Joe's Pub in the summer for his Theater Adult show. His special guest that night was Alex Edelman, who also is a funny comedian. And I feel like that was sort of a start of like, "Oh, right, I can be doing more of these live performances that blend music and comedy, similar to what I do on TikTok, and just bringing it to the live element."

What is the difference to you between approaching writing a bit for TikTok and short-form content, and writing a bit for a longer show?

Yeah, for this particular show, there are definitely a lot of similarities and a few differences. The biggest difference, though, is the context and the setup. You know, on TikTok, you're scrolling, and then you get the text, and there's the context of, like, all right, you have a text or maybe a green screen background, and there's a little more context, whereas here you have to really set everything up for the audience. Of course, the advantage here, when you're live, is everyone's here. They're not really going anywhere — unless they're walking out — so you have different things working for your favor and different things working against you. And it's funny, because I have seen folks from that maybe have success on TikTok, they try to do the same things in person, and usually the biggest difference they have to make is that setup for setting up the joke. But I think the humor is more or less the same. You know, if the joke is funny, then it's gonna still be funny.

I love watching the videos of yours where you’re reacting to other people singing your songs. What does that feel like? And are you prepared for audiences to sing along, potentially, to the TikTok favorites?

Most of the songs in this show will actually be some new songs, which is exciting to kind of fit with the theme. The show really is, I'm walking through the anatomy of a musical, and we're parodying different musical tropes going through opening numbers, I want songs, and different obstacles, and act one finales, and act two songs, and that's kind of the general shape. I'm sort of a tour guide through the anatomy of a musical. So that's why I couldn't include every song I've written on TikTok — realizing now it's like five-ish years in, I've written a lot of music that's been featured online. It feels great though, to see your music resonate with other folks online. And you know, in person, I invite folks to hum along if they're familiar with it or it's new to them, that's even better. I love doing things for people for the first time. But, yeah, it's always a great feeling when you see it kind of resonate with someone, and you're like, "Oh, wow, that is something I made that really hit home with someone," even if it's just it delighted you, and doesn't have to necessarily be profound.

What do you think is going to surprise audiences most about your show?

I think the surprise — especially for the folks that I know that maybe are not on TikTok or Instagram as religiously or routinely watching — I think a lot of folks are not as aware of me as a writer and composer. I think people know me as an actor, which has always kind of been a first tool of mine, but I've been so much more and more interested in acting in things that I've written, either for myself or for others as well, or being somewhat behind the scenes, like if it's a voice over. But I think that's definitely a big surprise. And I also think there is this kind of element of surprise, of like, maybe for this show, the knowledge of, kind of walking through a musical and what that looks like. And it's really putting my BFA degree in the most literal practice, which is kind of fun. So, yeah, I think people will have a really good time.

You described the show as part-Sondheim, part-Bo Burnham. Can you go a little bit more specific about that? What are you pulling from?

The Bo Burnham element — maybe not necessarily, the darker side so much. I've tried to keep this one a little more on the light, bright side of theater kid energy, but I think that it's got the silliness and the sort of wackiness and the really niche quality. And I think it's got the Sondheim quality. There's some Sondheim parodies. There's a lot of what I do on Instagram and TikTok, where I sort of flip composers on its head with the Musical Theater Multiverse of Madness and say, "Well, what if this composer wrote this show that they never would have touched because it's so not in their wheelhouse? Maybe it would sound like this." So I think this element of a one-man musical comedy cabaret show concert, meets a sort of a bunch of hypothetical fake musical scenarios with fake characters, is kind of what I'm going for here. So I think that the two kind of feel in line. And I think that's kind of eye popping for that kind of theater kid that’s interested.

How do you balance between satirical performance and earnest performance, especially when writing for the stage rather than short form?

It's a blurry line, and I think it should be blurry. I hate to use the word "should" in an artistic sense like that. But I think at least for me, someone that often uses that comedic tone, it's sort of nice when you approach something with a comedic sensibility, and it feels like a joke, and then suddenly, by the end, the audience member has, like, raised an eyebrow, and they were like, "Wait, this was actually genuine and somewhat touching." And there are definitely a few moments of that throughout this particular show. I think similarly, even with a show like Dear Evan Hansen that I was so familiar with, doing nearly 800 performances, I played the comic relief character, which really helps keep some levity throughout the story. And the audience is giggling a bit, so that by the end, they actually feel comfortable enough to put the guard down and maybe shed a tear or two. And that's sometimes just how good storytelling goes.

You talked a little bit about the one-man show that you’re working on. Is there anything else that you can tease that might be on the horizon for you?

Yeah, actually, I've written on a couple full length musicals. One is a Christmas musical, one is a fantasy musical, and one is about some animals. And I guess I can leave it at that for now. I've been working on them for a couple years, and they're definitely a little larger in scale, which is kind of why I worked my way backward to "OK, can I do a one man musical?" and then back again to even smaller, "Can I do a one man musical comedy concert that's a little more, you know, at one of these dinner beverage venues?" because it's a different type of commitment you're asking from an audience member than to sit in a theater. Sometimes the food and beverage breaks up the tension a little bit.