[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Mike Blaha: International Joke, written and performed by Mike Blah, at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2025.
The most impressive thing about Mike Blaha: International Joke is how Mike manages to make the entire show feel like one long, slightly random conversation you might have with a complete stranger about his fascinating life. It’s a wonderful hybrid of stand-up and comedic monologue. An autobiographical show about a man who decided that, since he spent half his life travelling, why not spend all of it that way!
The show follows Mike as he begins his journey. After making the decision to get out of L.A. and into the rest of the world, a friend invites him on a trip to Italy for a month…nice friend! As the trip comes to an end, Mike decides to just keep going and take train after train across Europe, culminating in his annual Thanksgiving dinner with a big group of friends in Paris.
What I find magical about Mike and this wonderful show is how effortlessly he seems to move from dodgy bus ride to packed train, from sinister hotel to suspicious cab driver, and from weird museum to weirder restaurant without getting freaked out or running for the nearest airport. He embraces the strange. He revels in the potentially dire, and that is the adventure. Of course, it helps that he is well over 6 ft tall and looks like he could take care of himself in a pinch. As affable as he is, one would hope he knows a bit of karate or something. Although if his anecdotes are anything to go by, he does seem to live a charmed existence on his travels. Which is a relief!
The show plays out like a dinner party guest with the best possible stories to tell. Mike is charming, brilliant and so very funny that you wish he would tell you more and linger longer. He’s the guy you want to sit by at an all-day wedding. The stranger you only wish would be on your bus or sitting at the bar in the bad hotel you got stuck in. There is heroism in living a life outside of everyone else’s box. Permanently on vacation, but with a purpose. To live in the world, not on it. To become a part of everything he sees. A participant in the universe all around him! What a treasure he is and what a marvellous life he has made for himself. Bravo!!
Mike has one more show left this fringe, so do yourself a huge favor and go a see Mike Blaha: International Joke before he heads off the the Edinburgh Fringe!
Tickets:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/12037?tab=tickets
When:
Saturday, June 28 at 11:55 PM
Where:
The Broadwater
1078 Lillian Way, Los Angeles, CA 90038
****
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