Podcasting changes everything: Review of Mike Schmidt's "Success Is Not An Option"

The Sound of Young America Presents: Mike Schmidt
The 40 Year Old Boy: Success Is Not An Option

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Dark Room, San Francisco

Mike Schmidt brought his work-in-progress one-man show to San Francisco for a 2-night run.

The Dark Room in San Francisco’s Mission District is small, but everyone there was on Mike Schmidt’s side. Most knew him through podcasts: Schmidt’s own (The 40 Year Old Boy); season 1 of Never Not Funny; or his recent appearance on Jordan, Jesse, Go! Some fans traveled from Canada to see him.

Mike Schmidt

Producer/friend/laugh-track Lili VonSchtupp forewarned the audience that the show would run long, and she was right. It’s a testament to Schmidt’s ability as an entertainer that 2-1/2 intermissionless hours didn’t drag.

On stage, Mike Schmidt is an aurora borealis with ADD: a fascinating peripatetic storyteller with moments of focused brilliance. His tangential style gives the audience an idea of what it’s like to be inside Schmidt’s mind. To captivate the broader audience Schmidt hopes to reach, Success Is Not An Option needs editing centered on a cohesive through line. Schmidt tied a bow on a couple of stories with pitch-perfect callbacks, the beginnings of the solid foundation this show requires.

The Dark Room, SF

Supersonic delivery is one of the pleasures of his performance, but Schmidt cannot be afraid of occasional silence. His stories are so dense with comedy and personal cataclysm and detail and physicality that most audiences will need a few beats to absorb it all.

A couple of people had to leave ~ the trains stop running at 1am ~ before what would be the strongest segment of the night. “I closed San Francisco,” Schmidt said, surprised and not at all surprised.

Schmidt’s final story holds the promise of what this show can be. With most of the evening’s earlier stories, the unscripted often popped into the narrative; and while it was extremely entertaining and hysterically funny, it didn’t feel like a one-man show just yet.

The last story, however, Schmidt had by the balls.

Mike Schmidt at the UCB, LiezlWasHere

His focus made all the difference. The story (about a nearly-apocalyptic road trip with his older brother and their wives) lasted close to 30 minutes, but it felt like 5. It was powerful live theatre, not just Schmidt telling stories. And, it was Mike Schmidt performing at a level that can take him beyond free podcasting and intimate theatres of fans.

At the end, Schmidt reinforced the evening’s (still loose) story arc by declaring himself a lifelong fuck-up who keeps trying and trying to make things right. He professed his commitment not to waste any more of his life, to turn it around for himself and his wife, Karen. With focus and smart editing, Success Is Not An Option may be the key to Schmidt’s redemption.

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IMAGES FROM SUCCESS IS NOT AN OPTION, AUGUST 2010