By 
Octavarius was recently privileged enough to attend Colin Quinn’s newest show, Long Story Short. In this production, Quinn eschews the normal trappings of a comedy club setting in order to reach not only a new type of audience, but also to get to deal with topics that might be more difficult to address in a normal comedy club setting. Octavarius was invited to a small group Q&A with Colin after his show and got to get into his motivations for doing this type of show and why he chose this setting.
When asked why he decided to do this show in a theater, Colin remarked, “In comedy clubs, they want more sexual stuff, that’s how it is. Sometimes I don’t know what wouldn’t get crickets besides some kind of dick jokes.” In the Broadway Playhouse (where the show runs until Sept. 10) the audience faces to the front, there are no drunken exchanges with audience and comic. This allows Quinn to delve deeper into some material he’s peppered into his regular stand-up act for a few years. “Nowadays people are more geopolitical. I did my closing chunk for some of the troops on the USO tour I did a couple years back and those guys really got it.”
It was wonderful to watch Colin freely explore the history of the world, the current geopolitical atmosphere, and why we are the way we are. His approach is logical and practical without getting political on the audience. Although Quinn lamented the amount of material Director Jerry Seinfeld cut from the show, the show flows wonderfully without talking down to the audience at any point. And don’t worry if you’ve already caught the HBO special, Quinn has already injected new material into the show and the show is continually evolving with each performance. Being able to watch a master comedic mind work, uninterrupted, and make it look easy is a treat not to be missed.
Colin Quinn: Long Story Short is directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
Theatre : Broadway Playhouse, Chicago Illinois
Dates : August 24, 2011 – September 10, 2011
Running time: 75 minutes with no intermission
Ticket prices are $40 to $65.
Groups of 10+ are now on sale. Call 312-977-1710 for tickets or click here.
