[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Tom Hertz’s one-man comedy That’s Where the Nail Was at the Theatre 68 Arts Festival. August 7-23.
Tom Hertz has been a writer and stand-up comedian his entire life. Starting out in clubs and bars and moving up slowly and surely to bigger and better clubs and bars, paying gigs and eventually writing for Dennis Miller and John Stewart.
After years of writing for other people’s shows, he eventually got his own show, Rules of Engagement, and a few Emmys to boot. Years of success, a long marriage, a couple of kids and a great life all came crashing down in one eventful 52nd year. A brutal divorce, no work, no house, and then he got sick. Very, very sick. In fact, he nearly died and it took many months of physiotherapy and actual therapy to get him back in the world once more. And the love of a good woman, of course.
His story, and the theme of this utterly brilliant solo show, is as riveting as it is entertaining, which is not to say that he treats any of the past few years lightly. Not at all. It’s just that as a comedy writer he’s afflicted with the curse of humor. Whether he likes it or not.
That’s Where the Nail Was is a gentle unfolding of Tom’s life. He takes us from his early life with his family and getting the comedy bug after college. From escaping ‘normal jobs’ to make people laugh and everything that brought him to this moment in time. Good and bad. There are anecdotes, but he manages not to regale us with stories of famous people, thankfully. He’s a cool guy and I mean that in the best sense. He comes across as modest and sweet, and he is an incredibly gifted storyteller. Yes, it’s his story to tell, but it’s very easy to get that wrong. He doesn’t. He gives just the right amount of funny, just the right amount of pathos, just the right amount of pragmatism.
What I like the most about That’s Where the Nail Was is Tom. It’s not an easy task, you know, to be genuine and funny, likable and entertaining without bursting into song. Tom has a way of being funny and clever without making the joke about him or you. He’s just funny. Funny in that lazy, almost not funny way. Amiable, affable, insanely smart and not at all self obsessed. His style is slow and steady. It feels improvised in places, but he’s too good for that. Every now and then he moves to one side of the stage, where there is a mic and a spotlight, to transport us to pivotal moments in his stand-up career. The nights he got plucked from obscurity to write for John Stewart, or when Jerry Seinfeld told him he liked a particular joke, or when he got a night so right it meant something to him.
That’s Where the Nail Was is a look inside a comic writer’s mind. But it’s also about a man who nearly died and what that meant to him then as well as now. He tells his story with a wonderful sense of irony and is able to look back at the threads that took him from there to here. And he does it with a writer’s brain, never mind the comedy. He’s able to analyze and wonder at the same time, and the result is hilarious and heartfelt, inspiring and warmly wonderful.
The title ‘That’s Where The Nail Was’ is a reference to his habit of pivoting to the nearest, most logical, and in the end, most successful space. A door opens and he walks through it. Habit or art? Opportunity or fate? Destiny or design? In the end, our lives are always the way they are supposed to be. Whether we fight the future or not, it will always arrive uninvited. Better to have a sense of humor about it, and Tom Hertz has perfected that.
That’s Where the Nail Was has one more weekend at The Theatre 68 Festival, and I urge you to see it.
It’s the kind of show that keeps turning up in your head when you least expect it, staying with you in a really good way. I absolutely bloody loved it!!!
Tom Hertz created Rules of Engagement; he wrote for the Denis Miller Live show and John Stewart, Spin City, King of Queens.
Tickets:
https://theatre68artsfestival.stagey.net/projects/14935?tab=details
Where:
Theatre 68
5112 Lankershim Blvd, NoHo Arts District, CA 91601
When:
8/21 @ 5PM, 8/22 @ 5PM, 8/23 @ 7PM