Arts & Events

Eye from the Aisle:Josh Kornbluth at Shotgun—
Good for a Laugh and a Sigh

By John A. McMullen II
Wednesday February 23, 2011 - 12:08:00 PM

Josh Kornbluth has become a near-icon in the Bay Area with his drollery and reminiscences of growing up Pinko, and observations of the culture. As a non-observant, cultural Jew reared with professions of atheism, his perspective of a displaced outsider give him special standing. 

His revival of his ANDY WARHOL: GOOD FOR THE JEWS? plays through this Sunday Feb 27 at Shotgun Players and produced by Jonathan Reinis. Kornbluth’s springboard topic is the 10 Jewish Geniuses painted by Andy Warhol. While he does good service to each of the personalities Warhol painted (Freud, Einstein, Gershwin— and I’m not giving the rest away here), he ultimately he winds it around to the personal. His difficult relationship with his genius, rebellious father and his well-off grandparents, his child’s yearning for a puppy, and the deep emotions of a life well-remembered all wrapped in a kreplach of funny are the stuff of his monologues. With his owlish glasses and this Ronald McDonald side-fringe on his balding head, in a brilliant yellow print shirt, with dramatic side-lighting and looked down upon by stalwarts of his erstwhile tribe, Kornbluth’s story-telling is a delight in his Woody Allen-like way. 

It’s 90 uninterrupted and worthwhile minutes of a story well-told. 

My colleague Ken Bullock wrote a pithy review of it in a previous incarnation a couple of seasons ago which still holds true, and I direct you to his words: