Maryland Native Returns Home With Comedic One-Man Show At Charm City Fringe

New York based comedian, actor, writer, and improviser, Joe Minchik, is coming home to perform in his new autobiographical solo show, un-a-parent at the 7th annual Charm City Fringe Festival. A Maryland native who hails from Carroll County, Minchik is returning to perform in Maryland for the first time since moving to New York City ten years ago.

Directed by award-winning director Betsy True (Howard County native), un-a-parent is a painfully honest comedy about love. And parents. And nuns. And ball surgery. And a boy who wants kids and the girl he meets who doesn't. Conversational in tone, Joe weaves together personal anecdotes from his life to tell a larger story. Sharing a letter he wrote to his non-existent son as a student at Cardinal Gibbons High School (Baltimore), the epic and auspicious twelve hour first date he had with a Long Island runner, and character impressions of his constantly bickering parents, Joe's performance walks the line between hilarious and heartwarming. He takes his audience on a journey that pieces together the irony of his situation: a guy who always knew he wanted to be a father falls for a woman who always knew she never wanted to be a mother.

un-a-parent prompts the audience to ask the tough but essential question that any person who has ever fallen in love has had to face: "How the hell do we stay in love?"

"I think there's often the perception that true love means happily ever after," Minchik says. "Real life looks a lot different. A lot messier, harder, and full of uncertainty. I was interested in exploring that genuinely human side of what relationship really means."

As an actor, Minchik has been featured on The Good Wife, the award-winning comedy web series Third Wheel, and has voiced a Discovery Channel pilot as well as performed in numerous commercials. Over the last decade he has performed on various New York improv stages, including The Upright Citizens Brigade, The Peoples Improv Theater, and The Magnet. In 2015 his one-act play With This Ring finished second at the New York New Works Festival. Having grown up in Westminster, Maryland, Minchik attended the former Cardinal Gibbons High School in Baltimore City. While subsequently receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Theater/Broadcasting from Seton Hall University, Joe began his career interning for the head writers of The Late Show with David Letterman.

Show: un-a-parent by Joe Minchik

Where: 322 N. Howard St., 3rd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201

When: Friday, November 2, 8:15 p.m.

Sunday, November 4, 3:00 p.m.

Friday, November 9, 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 10, 8:15 p.m.

Tickets: http://charmcityfringe.com/tickets ($10 per performance, plus a one-time $5 festival button)

Show website: unaparentshow.com