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It is painful to note that a show calledGrandiloquentis too long.
Oh, get the hook!
he recalls his mother telling him when hed tell a long story.
shed say, the Yiddish word for enough.
It felt like I was being heckled by my ancestors.
He can stand on a stage and hold a crowds attention.
He can go long.
Its not an issue of joke density.
He wants to be on a stage without having to perpetually reach for a punch line.
Gulman considers this time of his life while also wrapping it with multiple layers of thematic gauze.
More often than not, theres ample material in the veins Gulman chooses to mine.
But the shelves are comically large; they dwarf his impressive six-foot-six frame.
One of them has collapsed, and its books are strewn across the floor.
All of its a cover, and the veneer of confidence is wearing thin.
Too often, though,Grandiloquentsuffers from precisely the things Gulman is most worried about proving.
In the end, this is what hampersGrandiloquentthe most.
Gulman is a canny, affable performer who is more than capable of entertaining an audience for two hours.
But not all additions are additive; sometimes they only complicate and distract from what works.
Less would have been enough.
Grandiloquentis at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through February 8.
