{"id":3945,"date":"2021-03-23T12:08:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T16:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=3945"},"modified":"2021-03-23T12:23:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T16:23:02","slug":"gary-gulman-on-writing-though-the-pandemic-chris-flemings-refreshingly-surreal-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2021\/03\/23\/gary-gulman-on-writing-though-the-pandemic-chris-flemings-refreshingly-surreal-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Gulman On Writing Through the Pandemic, Chris Fleming’s Refreshingly Surreal Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been a while since I posted here, but I have a couple of bits of comedy-relating news I wanted to share, resulting from a conversation I had with Mr. Gary Gulman. I spoke with Gulman for The Boston Globe<\/em> for an upcoming piece on <\/a>Dr. Katz Live<\/a><\/em>, which is happening on RushTix.com<\/a> on March 28. The piece will be in the Globe<\/em> this weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things Gulman loves about Jonathan Katz, the comic mind behind Dr. Katz, is his non-linear way of making comedy. In discussing that, Gulman brought up Chris Fleming, who has a show tonight (March 23) called Chris Fleming: Through the Baleen<\/a><\/em>, the tagline of which is \u201ca virtual show deep inside the belly of a whale.\u201d Gulman had a lot to say about Fleming in his comparison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\naren’t that many surreal comedians where there’s there are so many, for\ninstance, cynical comedians, and that’s a well-represented genre,\u201d says Gulman.\n\u201cBut there are there are few and far between in the sort of surreal or abstract\ncomedians. And that’s what I love about people like Jon Katz, and I think\nyou’ve you’ve seen Chris Fleming, who’s from Stow, Mass. That ability to do\nthings that are that are that are not linear, and not in the common realm of\ncomedy. So I it really stands out, especially if, like you and I have seen so\nmuch comedy that that you see somebody who’s silly and is not coloring in the\nlines. It’s really refreshing and compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have profiled Fleming a couple of times for the BDCWire<\/a><\/em> and The Boston Globe<\/a><\/em>, and spoke to him for my old Boston Comedy Blog<\/a> when he was getting ready to leave Boston for LA in 2010. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst time I saw him was at the now-defunct Mottley\u2019s Comedy Club in Boston on\na showcase show. He studied dance as a minor at Skidmore College, and it was evident\nin a routine he did about birds and their mating dances, which immediately\nbrought Monty Python\u2019s \u201cMinistry of Silly Walks\u201d sketch to my mind. I told\nGulman my first impression was that Fleming seemed fully formed already, which\nis an impression he shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\nare only a handful of comedians,\u201d says Gulman, \u201clike Patrice O’Neal was one,\nwhere I remember when I saw him for the first time and just my reaction and it\nwas it was startling. It was so good. And I mean, as young as he was, even if\nhe had been doing it 20 years and he told me that I would have believed that\nbecause he was, like you said, he was so fully formed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gulman\nconsiders Fleming not only a great performer, but a friend. \u201cI met him at The Comedy\nStudio in 2010, I think,\u201d he says. \u201cI watched him and immediately went out of\nmy way to become his friend because I just, I love being around him. He’s so\nhe’s so thoughtful and funny and encouraging. And he loves comedy. I just\nadmire him so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight\u2019s\nshow is only the second live virtual show he\u2019s done since the pandemic hit in March\nof 2020. Gulman hasn\u2019t done any Zoom shows. \u201cI was married on zoom in October,\u201d\nhe says. \u201cSo that was a bit of a show in that I got dressed up. But other than\nthat, I would say that I haven’t done any performance on Zoom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s the feel of the\naudience that I rely on and for my for my timing. It’s not that I need that for\nmy for my confidence, but I need it for my enjoyment. I can’t enjoy it unless I\nfeel as if I’m connecting in some way, and even doing interviews that I had to\ndo to promote things, I was not able to feel the connection when saying things\nthat I that I thought were funny that were in joke form. Something was lost.\nAnd so very early on I said I’m not going to I’m not going to do this to\nmyself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he has only gotten to go onstage twice in the past year, Gulman has been able to concentrate on writing, and getting feedback from a couple of people who he allows to see the unfinished work. \u201cAs far as my creative expression, I just had to put it all into my laptop and my notebook and put aside the performance for a while,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, I miss it, but I get through it, just recalling how fortunate I was and how grateful I am that I was able to get my most personal work out, The Great Depresh<\/a><\/em>, before all this all came out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gulman had built up a lot of momentum around The Great Depresh<\/em>, a landmark HBO special that delved into his personal life both in the material and in documentary-style segments that followed him at home, with his family, and in comedy clubs. He was poised to build on that in 2020 before the pandemic hit. When asked if this might have been frustrating for him, he answers that he considers himself fortunate compared to others who had to cancel weddings or miss their senior year in college. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that I wanted to\nrecord a new special this coming, well, what would be now, like in the spring\nof 2021, I thought I would record a new one,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we were on track to\ndo that. So now I’ve just had to adjust it until maybe a year from now. Again,\nthat’s fine. But yeah, I lost some momentum. But some people lost their lives.\nSo I pinch myself from my luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had his next hour of comedy already written by the time the tour for The Great Depresh<\/em> ended and had already started working that material on the road. Gulman says he was already doing two-hour shows and might have a third hour of material at this point, but doesn\u2019t like to go for that long onstage. That just means he\u2019ll have more to choose from when touring starts again in earnest. \u201cIt’s a great position to be in because so many times in my career, I’ve had a hard time coming up with that next hour because my stage time was so limited for so long,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to always say when I’m starting off in Boston, once I get all the stage time I need there’ll be there’ll be no stopping me. And I was I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find tickets for Dr. Katz Live<\/em> here<\/a>. Find tickets for <\/a>Chris Fleming: Though the Baleen<\/a><\/em> here<\/a>. Find out more about Gary Gulman on his website here<\/a>. And check The Boston Globe website<\/a> or the print edition this weekend for the Jonathan Katz <\/a>story. <\/p>\n

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