A Warm-Hearted and Witty Look at Life, With a ‘Cold Hearted’ Nod to Paula Abdul

If you’ve never imagined that repeated references to broccolini could make you burst into laughter, there’s a little show downtown that may well change your mind.After tickling audiences and critics at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and during other stints in New York and Los Angeles, “Are You Mad at Me??” is making its off-Broadway premiere at the HERE Arts Center. A solo piece, written and performed by Bryan Safi, an actor and comedian known for his work on television and as co-host of the podcasts “Attitude!” and “Ask Ronna,” combines autobiographical and observational humor.Like Josh Russo, the character he has played for years on ABC’s “9-1-1,” and like so many New Yorkers, Mr. Safi, who actually hails from Texas, is a confirmed neurotic, or at least casts himself as such. But that overused description does little justice to the inspired, exhilarating zaniness that makes “Are You Mad” feel even shorter than its 70 minutes.Unlike some comics and artists of all stripes who flaunt their anxiety as evidence of emotional depth or intellectual sophistication, Mr. Safi seems happy to play the goofball, and to engage his audience as fellow spirits. No sooner has he made his entrance, crooning a mock-serious take on Paula Abdul’s late-‘80s chestnut “Cold Hearted” — more pop nuggets will follow — than he’s encouraging, or rather demanding, our participation, at times calling out viewers or sidling up to them for individual feedback.If the prospect of being singled out in a small theater makes you nervous, rest assured that Mr. Safi’s shtick is refreshingly free of snark. Even while re-enacting, hilariously, the behavioral markers of “straight bros” — Mr. Safi is gay, and his coming to terms with his sexual orientation is also played for laughs — he never comes across as vicious or, worse still, suggests a sense of superiority.That’s not to say the material here isn’t smart. It takes a sharp mind to cull hysteria from a dopey appellation like “broccolini catastrophini,” as Mr. Safi does in recalling a date that began with promise but went uproariously awry. Another bit involves the premise that people-pleasers, a category that our host identifies with, do not truly enjoy pleasing people at all; sound designers Connor Wang and Camille Denholm help evince the demonic impulses underlying their superficial benevolence.Yet another highlight stems from the unlikely source of Mr. Safi’s professed awkwardness in simply walking, particularly onstage. Different approaches to making an entrance are parodied, becoming increasingly contrived. “There are the fake backstage convo people,” he observes at one point. “They act like they’re finishing a hilarious story—and are shocked to see an audience.”Summing up these examples, Mr. Safi muses, “All such confident choices. And confidence is something I really lack. Confidence would’ve been me coming out and NOT singing Paula Abdul. I feel like I’m faking it till I make it like no one else.”Who can’t relate to that dilemma, to some degree, at certain times? Surely no one who makes a living as an entertainer, and it is in exploring this notion, and how it relates to human qualities we all share, that “Are You Mad at Me??” ultimately achieves a sort of quirky profundity. Mr Safi closes the show another whimsical musical number, featuring in its refrain the lyric, “Look at me but not too much.” You’ll remain laser-focused, and grinning, nonetheless.

A Warm-Hearted and Witty Look at Life, With a ‘Cold Hearted’ Nod to Paula Abdul

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