Steve Solomon has been in high demand for a decade.
But that didn’t stop the Herberger Theater Center from booking 32 performances of the writer-actor-comedian’s reputedly side-splitting one-man comedy show, “Cannoli, Latkes & Guilt,” from Feb. 4 to March 1.
You may have heard of Steve Solomon before; he’s been out and about the Broadway and national theater scene for a while, and he hasn’t exactly flown under the radar, earning Broadway.com’s “Best New Play” award, BroadwayWorld.com’s “Audience’s Favorite Play” award, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle nomination for “Best Actor.” Solomon is no stranger to performing internationally, either — he cites Bermuda as one of his favorite places to put on a show.
Phoenix is high up on Solomon’s list of favorites, too.
“I loved the crowds in Phoenix,” Solomon said, having booked shows here before. “Number one, great weather in the winter, and a really sophisticated theater crowd … people who want to come out and have fun.”
“Cannoli, Latkes & Guilt” is actually the fourth of Solomon’s one-man comedy shows. He first earned a name for himself with “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish, and I’m in Therapy” in 2002. This show is still being performed, as are the other three. Solomon’s shows are based around his Jewish and Italian family life, and feature his relatives as the main characters. Solomon plays all twenty characters, from his elderly father to his chain-smoking sister.
Not only are these characters relatable — there certainly are a lot of absent-minded grandparents and stubborn mothers out there — but they are all very real people in Solomon’s life, and they have evolved through each new show as his parents and relatives have moved, changed and gotten older.
“My father’s gotten a little grumpier, and the audience has liked that,” Solomon said. “I think the best line [my father] has in the show is when I say to him, ‘Daddy, you’re 89 years old, what words of advice can you give me?’ And he says, ‘Son, never ever take a sleeping pill and a laxative at the same time.’”
Solomon got started as a comic performer a little later than most, but his knack for accents and sound effects has been around for a while. Solomon grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn, to a family of mixed cultures, a more-than-conducive environment for developing the ability to imitate accents and personalities. He recalled the childhood experience when he first learned he had a talent for imitating voices and accents.
“I realized I could do [accents] when I was about 12 years old. I got a job for the summer selling Chinese foods in the apartment houses. I would go up and push the button and people would say, ‘Who is it?’ and I would say, ‘Chinese delivery,’ and they wouldn’t open the door. So I learned that if I pushed the button and they said, ‘Who is it?’ I’d say (gibberish) and they’d say, ‘Just a minute!’ And so that’s how I learned I could do it.”
Before entering the world of stand-up, Solomon was a physics teacher and an assistant superintendent of schools. He often told jokes in his classes, and as a school administrator, he learned to talk in front of large groups of people. Solomon loved his students. What he didn’t like were the “politics” that came hand-in-hand with a job in education.
“It was a bureaucracy over there … I always had fun in the classrooms, I really enjoyed the kids, I was a real kidder, and we made jokes and had a good time, but the politics was not something I wanted to go along with,” Solomon said. “And I knew I had the talent, and I knew I had a gift, so why wait?”
Solomon began by writing jokes and stories for comedians on television. He was excited to hear his own work on television, though he never received pay for the material he provided. Next, he started performing himself.
“When I started in comedy, I was horrible, I was terrible,” Solomon said. “I had material, I just didn’t know how to work the audiences … so I realized I had to create something that would have universal appeal.”
“My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish, and I’m in Therapy,” had just that. It was first performed for a commercial audience in 2002, and it’s been a hit ever since.
Solomon has received a lot of praise over the years, in the form of awards, positive reviews and the fact that his shows are still received by huge, loyal audiences over a decade later. But he doesn’t write or perform for the critical acclaim.
“It’s lovely, it’s very exciting, it adds some credibility to the product, but I don’t seek awards,” Solomon said. “I do it, I write, because it’s funny. And I write because I love seeing the audiences laugh. And that’s pretty much it.”
“Cannoli, Latkes & Guilt” will be at the Herberger Theater Center between Feb. 4 and March 1. Performances are Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Thursdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.herbergertheater.org.
Contact the author at Faith.Anne.Miller@asu.edu. Contact the columnist at mbilker@asu.edu
