Sean Cullen: he's a human man on tour and this is his review
If the title of Sean Cullen’s mini-tour smacks of straight-faced obviousness, it should. Unlike some star-driven one man shows, there is no hokey pretense on which his presentation hangs, only an opening voice over that is as dramatic as it is obtuse: a fair description of most of Cullen’s material.
The musical comedian, who recently graced the stage of Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre, doesn’t operate on a signature theme or structure, but lets his mind wander into whatever direction it may, only brought back into line for his stage performance by the necessity of segueing into one of his catchy and off-beat songs.
Despite being well-crafted, the songs are the weaker portion of the show. Cullen brings an abundance of energy to his performance but it is still not enough to make up for the large and lonely stage. A full backup band, beyond on-stage guitarist Robbie Roth, would have done a lot to heighten the effect from ‘karaoke’ to ‘concert’. Having said that, the long and slow build of the Latin American inspired “Cacheevo” proved to be a highlight of the evening, as did one of Cullen’s fan favourites, “Death by the Food of Your Choice” in which audience members suggest a food and Cullen in turn devises a diabolical means of killing using said edible. Although the comedy is usually mined from the abstract way in which Cullen incorporates the suggested food into his murderous plot, his biggest laugh was courtesy of the suggestion of Hamburger Helper, to which Cullen curtly responded “Just keep eating it.”
Padding the songs is plenty of spoken comedy. Although his standup style is largely improvisational, one can always expect sharp material from Cullen. The heart of his humour lies in his random and often nerdily well informed specificity - the finest display of which during the evening’s performance was his James Bond themed breakdown of the physics-based complexities behind a ‘quantum of solace’.
Unnecessary yelling, a surprising quantity of poop jokes, and one particularly flat bit about getting angry at birds were not Cullen’s finest moments, but there was plenty to make up for it. A gang of Humber College Comedy Program students gave Cullen some audience-specific material to riff off of and to gently poke fun at. Cullen set his sights on himself too, satirizing his high profile role as Max Bialystock in the Toronto Production of ‘The Producers’ which earned him some favourable and not so favourable reviews.
Cullen earned the affection of the culture lovers in the audience when, referring to the Panasonic Theatre which has been transformed and renamed multiple times in recent years, he said, tongue firmly in cheek, “It’s so sad when a good cinema is turned into a theatre.” Cullen does not draw on a lot of real life personal material the way many comics do, but with the recent birth of his son, Cullen could not resist including a bit about the one-upmanship in parenting groups that results in bizarre tales of one’s baby’s accomplishments and traits.
Although Cullen is a true entertainer, the one man show format still demands enough structure that it dulls his edge of spontaneity. As far as a compromise is concerned, his I am a Human Man tour is a lively, broadly themed, and unpredictable event. Sean Cullen is not for everyone, but for those in line with his brand of creativity, his return to the stage is welcomed.