Written and Presented by Adam and Marisol Colette.
Appearing for one night only at the Whitefire Theater, Sherman Oaks.
So this was a definite first for me. Attending a live podcast event and also doing a little couples therapy…on my own. “Reading Aloud”is a very popular podcast, burgeoning on the famous. It is on the cusp of greatness if you will. Its listeners are expanding exponentially and after sitting in on one of their truly hilarious couples conversation. I can totally understand why.
Adam and Marisol might not at first glance seem to be the kind of people who you would expect to be an actual couple, adorable as they are. And yet, after spending a little more than an hour with them in their world, it’s pretty apparent that they are perfect for each other. If you can look passed the gentle bickering, conscious and subconscious competitiveness and their uber reflective and continuous psychoanalysis of each other. It’s that deep sense of truly knowing each other, warts and all, and still loving what draws us to them. “Reading Aloud” is a really funny observationally commentary show, but set within an actually marriage of two people who are actively working on the ‘health’ of their commitment.
I must admit to being a bit lazy on the podcast front. I do listen, I have accounts, etc, but not nearly enough, if I’m honest. I really have to up my game in that arena. This podcast feels more like some time spent with a couple you’ve known personally forever. Their secrets are your secrets and their paranoia your conversations, their bad habits your entertainment. They squabble and support each other on every conceivable subject while jaunting off on rather enjoyable tangents and then circling back expertly to the subject at hand. They are beautifully adept at talking to each other, understanding each and every lead and trick and nuance…it makes for a spectacular fly-on-the-wall kind of pleasure.
Taking this stunningly simple and wilding entertaining show on the road is a pretty genius idea.
These two are not just “good for radio” types. Cute, flirty, idiosyncratic and a bit sexy, they spar so sweetly, just on the edge of too much that we are transfixed but the actual possibility of hurt feelings and stunned by their openness and total apparent lack of ego.
Its make s for great theatre…the icing on the cake is when they invite an audience member to the stage to add to the conversation…almost like prey to the slaughter. This heightens the drama, increasing the chance of eruption, delaying the payoff, the conclusion, the climax…its all very sexual really…in a very buttoned-up mid-western/southern kind of way. Really brilliant.
For all the improvisation around the subject of the day, they seem to have a pretty good handle on the structure of the show. Maybe its because they have been doing this so long, maybe its because they just know where they are are going, even if we don’t, like a comic double act so used to performing together they need no safety net…or maybe it’s because they are just so perfect for each other…either way…it works and I loved it!!
You can see Adam and Marisol Colette on tour and listen to their podcast, “Reading Aloud” in all the usual places.
http://readingaloud.libsyn.com/?fbclid=IwAR2iJTen13xuSzJwicYxkWSQznwIGYPXFlNnBDPGT3IgQTzGA6J-g__BB8o