Lee native and stand-up comedian Kevin Bartini returns to western Massachusetts on Wednesday for five days at Springfield’s CityStage in the new comedy “You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up!” about love and marriage. “It’s great to come back home and do something for loyal followers who come to see me whenever I’m around. I’m grateful for them and...
Kevin Bartini and Gabrielle Mirabella in "You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up!" It will be staged February 20-24, 2013 at CityStage.
Lee native and stand-up comedian Kevin Bartini returns to western Massachusetts on Wednesday for five days at Springfield’s CityStage in the new comedy “You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up!” about love and marriage.
“It’s great to come back home and do something for loyal followers who come to see me whenever I’m around. I’m grateful for them and glad I can do this engagement for them,” said Bartini.
In the two-person play, Bartini portrays one-half of the “happily” married, real-life couple Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn, whose hilarious and often moving memoir has been adapted for the stage.
The book/play offers a hilarious glimpse into a relationship that seems doomed by opposing personalities from the start. However, the couple’s insanely crazy lifestyle manages to keep their relationship intact, up-ending every idea you ever had about living “happily ever after.”
“I consider the play as a romantic comedy, but it definitely has its serious moments and is really a true slice of marriage portraying moments of laughter and tears,” said Bartini, who now lives in New York City with his wife Jessica and their cats Archie and Edith.
This uproariously funny story was written to strike laughter and terror into the hearts of any couple, as well as every single man or woman who is contemplating the connubial state. The book was developed through sold-out performances at The Comedy Central Theater and at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles and made its New York premiere at The New York Comedy Festival 2009. Recent engagements have included Caroline’s on Broadway, Joe’s Pub and a critically acclaimed national tour that has played to sold out houses all across the United States.
“It’s a look at their marriage and life. And the very first thing that Jeff tells the audience is that he is a hopeless romantic who has been obsessed with the Romeo and Juliet story since he was a little boy, and that he wants that storybook romance for himself. The comedy comes in when the woman he ends up with is anything but what he was looking for. She is a realist who can be a bit cold and unromantic, but who really loves him,” said Bartini.
“Throughout the story we learn of their courtship and marriage and parenting styles and that opposites do indeed attract. They truly love each other and that comes across in the story which begins at a dinner where the two are celebrating their 10th anniversary,” he added.
Bartini attended Lee High School where he said he was the “class clown” and later went on “for a little while” to Berkshire Community College where he dropped out to do stand-up.
All the while through school Bartini participated in theater working with The Williamstown Theater Company, Barrington Stage Company, and Shakespeare and Company. <
“The mindset was to get myself comfortable on stage in front of people so that when I was old enough to start performing stand-up, I’d be that much further ahead of the game,” said Bartini.
Now, after more than a decade of honing his skills in New York City, Bartini spends his time traveling the country as a successful comedian doing stand-up. He is also the warm-up comic for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and is now doing the same for Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”
“I’m at the point where I am very comfortable with my stand-up, and I’ve been wanting to branch out and round out my career with more improv and theater. Then, at random, I got a phone call offering me the role as Jeff and the timing was right. I read the script and found it to be very funny, and what especially attracted me about the characters was that they are are both flawed and so very human. There is something about Annabelle that I relate to, something that reminds me of my wife, while at the same time there is something in Jeff that reminds me of myself,” said Bartini.
As for the real-life married couple, Gurwitch is an actress and writer who first gained prominence during her years co-hosting “Dinner & a Movie” on TBS. She has hosted television shows on ABC, VHI, STYLE and HBO. Her acting credits include “Medium,” “Boston Legal,” “Seinfeld” and the films “Shaggy Dog” and “Melvin Goes to Dinner.” Her work off-Broadway garnered her a place in The New York Times Top Ten Performances in Theatre of the Year 2002.
Kahn is a writer/performer who began his career on MTV’s “The Ben Stiller Show.” A few years later, he won an Emmy award for writing on FOX’s “The Ben Stiller Show.” He has also written for several other shows including “Later with Greg Kinnear,” “Austin Stories” and “Dilbert.” In addition to his writing, Kahn can be seen on HBO reruns of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Entourage,” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” and in the films “Tropic Thunder,” “40-Year-Old Virgin,” and “The Cable Guy.” His essays can be read online at FreshYarn.com and in his wife’s book, “Fired!”
Together they blog on The Huffington Post and live in Los Angeles with their 12-year-old old son, Ezra and their 18-year-old cat, Stinky.