BWW INTERVIEWS: Comedian Steve Solomon, Still in Therapy!

Steve Solomon takes a break from his sidesplitting comedy routine about halfway through the second act to share with the audience a heartfelt letter that his father wrote to him on the day he was born. Perched in a big leather easy chair, Solomon pulls out the old, crumpled relic from his pocket and begins to read aloud some of the sage advice that only a father can pass on to his son. "Life is like a toilet seat",begins Solomon, "It has its ups. It has its downs. And sometimes, you get peed on." Such is the humor in "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm Still in Therapy", now playing at The Midtown Theater through August 31st.

This is the third installment of Solomon's successful touring comedy show. It serves as a prequel to the original, "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy", and his hilarious holiday show, "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm Home for the Holidays!"

Solomon takes a Joan Rivers, "Can We Talk?" approach to his comedy as he casually interacts with his audience and gives them insight into what life was like growing up in a multi-cultural family. Using a wide variety of well-honed dialects, accents and true to life sound effects, the comedian takes us back to his childhood in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn. We learn of Solomon's overprotective mother, ("She made me wear a helmet for Chess team"), his parent's dysfunctional relationship ("They argued so much that my father began to look at his burial plot as a vacation getaway from my mother") and the unusual methods of discipline he was subjected to ("My father used to hit me, but back then they called it an ‘adjustment punch' ") all the while depicting an eccentric family clan whose personalities ring true to just about anyone.

Solomon's road to comedy followed a rather circuitous course. "I was a Physics teacher and then I became Assistant Superintendent of Schools out in Long Island," he explains. "I really couldn't take the beauracracy, the politics, the political correctness. I was always a nut and they considered me to be a major oddball. So what can I tell you, I decided to follow my heart."

The comedian always loved writing comedy and found himself giving his material away to some of the best comics in the business. "I would meet them at the Stage Deli, the Carnegie Deli - the Henny Youngmans, the Joey Adams, these were icons in my field. " Solomon recalls. "I knew I had a gift which was mostly doing voices and characters, but there weren't people doing that at the time, so I struggled for a while."

After a brief attempt at playing the stand up comedy circuit, he found a niche performing throughout Florida. Yet all the while, he knew it wasn't quite what he wanted to do. He finally got his big break when the William Morrison Agency gave him the opportunity to pitch his concept for "My Mother's Italian...". They signed him on the spot and the rest, as they say, is history.

Collectively, his three shows have been performed over 1900 times throughout the United States and overseas, making it one of the longest running one-man comedy shows on record. While the focus may be on Italian and Jewish culture, he has learned that audiences can relate to his show regardless of their heritage or demographic. "I've always maintained that you don't have to be Jewish or Italian to appreciate my show. You just have to know what it is to leave family with heartburn and a headache," jokes Solomon.

Judging from the riotous response at a recent performance, it is obvious that Solomon has it right. He remains extremely humble about his success and is gratified when he sees audience members walking out of the theater wiping tears from their eyes. "If they don't remember my name, I'm fine with that. If they remember my product, that's what's important," he contends. "When people walk out of the theater saying, ‘that was my uncle he was describing, that was my brother, that's exactly what happened to me when a cop stopped me' or identifying with some other section of the show, that's what makes it exciting for me."

Steve Solomon's " My Mother's Italian My Father's Jewish and I'm Still in Therapy" is now playing at The Midtown Theater, 163 West 46th through August 31. For tickets and further information, please call (291) 977-3884 or visit: www.MidtownTheater.net

 

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