extreme culture

VIDEO: Humorist Steve Solomon at King Center

By PAM HARBAUGH

The King Center invites you to put aside current events and slip into some comedy with “Cannoli, Latkes & Guilt…the therapy continues.” It opens tonight and runs through Sunday in the King Center’s Studio Theater.

The show is basically a two-hour stand up routine by Steve Solomon. It’s filled with one-liners about his functionally diverse family. Mr. Solomon, who played off-Broadway with his “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish, and I’m in Therapy,” takes on a variety of voices and lovingly brings to life a Brooklyn family born of that “Ragtime” patchwork.

One joke goes something like this: A little girls crawls into her grandfather’s lap and says croak like a frog. He asks why. She says “Cause grandmother says that when grandfather croaks we’ll all go to Disney World.”

Don’t look for political correctness here. Mr. Solomon, who does his own sound effects, jokes that immigrants should speak the language we speak in America — Spanish. He slips into stereotypes of various races, pokes fun at his own ethnic heritage and the funny struggles of old age.

Women will roar over his very funny take on the feminine hygiene aisle at Walgreen’s (the store serves as a recurring punch line). Men will crack up at his self-deprecating humor about an aging man’s body.

The show is overly generous at two hours — it has an intermission, which is a strange occurrence for a show that is basically stand-up. However, it has a sweet affection for a family that’s drifting into memory. And, it makes you laugh.

Here’s a little video of an interview I had with Mr. Solomon after Thursday’s opening.

Curtain is 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets begin at . the King Center is at 3865 N. Wickham Rd., Melbourne. Call 321-242-2219 or visit KingCenter.com.