"More to Love" on Broadway
Rob Bartlett does not view starring on Broadway as the punch line for a stand-up comic. Indeed, he quips, "The punch line is when they nail down your coffin. The rest is set-up. But," he acknowledges, with the wave of his palm, "Sitting here‹in a Broadway dressing room, staring out at West 49th Street‹it's a killer bit!"
Bartlett's hybrid theatre piece, "More to Love: A Big Fat Comedy," marrying stand-up shtick with surrealism and sentiment, opens on Broadway, at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Thurs., Oct. 15. The three-character play, written by Bartlett, is largely a vehicle for his uncanny mimicry‹his vowel-challenged Arab is peerless‹and one-liners. ("You know you're fat when your doctor gives you your cholesterol number and it has a comma in it.") It also purports to examine life, Bartlett's life, sort of.
"I protected the guilty," he notes, adding, "I didn't betray anyone. And, just because something actually happened doesn't mean it belongs in that form; events have to be reshaped in order to serve the play's dramatic needs. Throughout I was conscious of its narrative structure, using a traditional paradigm. And my on-stage character is more neurotic and insecure than I am."
In fact, he's Ralph Kramden as failed comic in an absurdist universe, awash in fabulous clutter and high tech. (There's more than one nod to "The Honeymooners.") With magical remote control in hand‹it's the ultimate wish-fulfillment tool‹our feckless protagonist can manipulate the responses of those around him, while he attempts to come to terms with his late father, his living family, and his stalled career.
"The play is about a 40-year-old comedian taking stock of his life and realizing that he's so busy waiting for things to happen, he's not enjoying what's there," says the animated 41-year-old Brooklyn native. Best known for his 12-year stint as "Imus in the Morning'' 's comic sidekick, Bartlett is also an Emmy Award-winner for his "Not-For-Profit Television Special," a Public Television fund-raising send-up.
"Always wanting more is a great motivator‹of course, a comic wants fame and fortune, but at what price? At the fulcrum of life you can move forward using what you've learned, or curse the darkness, instead of turning on the light. Success in life is a matter of perception. The theme of the play is John Lennon's quote, "Life is what happens when you're planning something else.' "
Like his onstage role, offstage Bartlett brings to mind an Everyman playing an Everyman who also happens to be a comic whose persona is Everyman. He conveys the heartiness of a working stiff, peppering his speech with psycho-jargon‹from the power of "enablers" to the healing properties of venting and voicing and sharing, Bartlett alludes to his belief that all events in life have order and meaning, if not now, perhaps in the afterlife. Bartlett is a crossbreed, combing an old-fashioned American optimism, a touch of the New Age, and Catholicism. He is a Roman Catholic and a churchgoer. Still, he emphasizes, his faith has more to do with "spiritual" impulses than with dogma.
Clowning Around
The son of an electrical engineer, Bartlett was the class clown from the outset, although he never seriously considered a career as an actor. Indeed, at Alfred University, in New York State, he majored in English and theatre with the idea he'd "teach English and direct the school plays. Acting seemed unreal. It was too enjoyable to be a profession." When Bartlett developed Crohn's disease, he lost his scholarship and had to drop out of college. In some ways this was a fortuitous turn. In short order, he was a regular on the comedy-club circuit, moving from open-mike night to paying gigs. It was the late '70s and the comedy scene was in full bloom. "You could work a different club every night for close to a year. Ten years ago the bottom fell out."
Bartlett cites several reasons why it largely died, including the growing impact of cable TV which had paradoxically, fueled the proliferation of comics, at least in the early years. "There was a tremendous demand for comics and they were performing all over the place. In time the audiences stopped coming. They could now see the comics they wanted to on cable." Bartlett speculates that the death knell for the comedy scene was "the outrageousness of the performers on stage. They were just so over-the-top there was no place else for them to go. The performers and audiences had become jaded."
Years ago, he adds, there was also a more clearly defined road to success for the aspiring comic than there is today. "The pinnacle was to be on the "Tonight Show' with Johnny Carson. And, if after your bit, he called you over to sit next to him‹at the right hand of the Father," Bartlett chortles, "your career was made. It certainly made the late Freddie Prinze. Over the years, however, it meant less and less. I can mention 20 guys who performed on Johnny Carson and they were never heard from again."
One commonly held ambition among comics that has not changed is making the pilgrimage to L.A. in search of that elusive TV development deal. "I've done my share of pilots, but I'm not prepared to relocate to Los Angeles. I have family responsibilities and see no reason to disrupt their lives for something so diaphanous. [Yes, he actually used that word]. There is truth to the joke, "Don't go to L.A. unless a limousine picks you up at the airport.' "
Clearly, the major turning point for Bartlett was landing his role on "Imus in the Morning," which has been an invaluable on-the-job-training experience. "Imus is a terrific editor and through him‹as well as working on radio‹I've learned something about rhythm, repetition, length of words, and vocal inflection. You address issues like syntax‹it should be accurate‹but at the same time you want the language to feel real. Radio is theatre of the mind and it's the job of the radio personality to fill in the blanks without over-explaining. And there's little room for subtlety."
Asked if he's received any flak for his comic bits that are not always kind, and are frequently ethnic in nature, he says, "Everyone thinks it's funny, until he's the target. Look, there's a difference between satire and kicking someone when he's down. Satirists are walking a thin line."
His years on the air have application to his current Broadway production, he points out. Still, a Broadway stage presents challenges that are unlike those of a radiocast and/or a nightclub act. "Broadway is slicker, the material has to be more fine-tuned. On Broadway there are fewer interactions between the audience and performer [than on call-in radio or even a club]. But there are moments when I break that fourth wall and play with the audience. Yet in a theatre it's all in the realm of shared fantasy. The audience has become my enabler."
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