The Schlubby Charms of Colin Quinn
As Politically Incorrect as Ever, and All the Funnier for It
It’s been 10 years since comedian Colin Quinn last graced the Lobero stage (according to Lobero Theatre Foundation Executive Director David Asbell), and his May 14 appearance was worth the wait. The actor, longtime stand-up, and former Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchor’s brand of observational comedy is still refreshingly politically incorrect, albeit with a slightly more middle-aged vantage point.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, there’s a lot that’s right.
His set was filled with quickly spoken, loose observations in his ever-more-gravelly Brooklyn accent about everything from police (“Cops have to be crazy enough to want to fight during the day, but calm enough to do the paperwork after”) to the situation in the Middle East (“it’s a biblical real estate war”), and even abortion rights (“The only people who get to weigh in on abortion rights are the mothers of adult children who disappointed them. They’ve seen both sides of this equation”). Yep, he went there.
He went to the kindergarten playground, where he suggested that we should really be teaching kids more important skills than ABCs, such as how to flirt when you forget someone’s name (hint: make up new nicknames for them), and how to suggest playdates after work.
He also went to the protests going on at college campuses, saying (and can’t you just see his fictional sitcom children rolling their eyes), “I know when I was 19, I had a lot of important ideas to contribute to society.”
Overall the show was insightful, funny, and undoubtedly politically incorrect. As Quinn astutely observed, we now live in an “adverb culture,” because, “allegedly, supposedly, possibly, everybody speaks cautiously and a little bit fake now.”
But Colin Quinn, fake? No. Funny, sure, but fake? Not so much.
