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Comedian Paul Mecurio won a Peabody Award as a writer on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for segments related to the 2000 presidential election, and Mecurio will work as part of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” staff when the talk show visits Chicago next week for the Democratic National Convention.
But Mecurio isn’t looking to get political when he brings his “Permission to Speak” show to Butler University’s Schrott Center of the Arts in Indianapolis on Aug. 24.
“Permission to Speak” is built upon Mecurio’s unscripted, long-form conversations with audience members. Those interactions reliably generate laughs, Mecurio said, and the shared stories have the potential to lower the temperature of left and right rhetoric.
“We don’t try to hold hands and say, ‘Let’s all get along,’” Mecurio said during a phone interview. “But the show’s premise is that we’re disconnected and divisive, especially now, politically, socially and otherwise. If we get together, share stories and have some laughs, we realize we have more in common than we think.”
Mecurio said each performance takes on the personality of audience members.
Behind the scenes, “Permission to Speak” is the work of showbiz all-stars.
Frank Oz, whose credits range from voicing Yoda in “The Empire Strikes Back” to directing 1988 film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” serves as the show’s director. J.J. Sedelmaier, known for co-creating “Saturday TV Funhouse” animated shorts for “Saturday Night Live,” crafted visuals for “Permission to Speak.” And Jim Fenhagen, who designed the physical sets for “The Colbert Report” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” gave “Permission to Speak” its onstage look.
“I wanted to do a show that engaged people in a unique way, got their stories and made it about them,” Mecurio said. “Frank and I agreed that I can’t be the one going for the funny. Just let the funny come organically from the conversation.”
The idea for “Permission to Speak” originated from Mecurio’s work as the warm-up comic for Colbert’s TV audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater (where Indianapolis native David Letterman hosted his version of “Late Show” on CBS from 1993 to 2015).
“I have this crazy curiosity,” Mecurio said. “I just keep asking questions, and then another question and then you get into these unbelievable stories.”
Mecurio said Broadway producers caught him in the act with “Late Show” attendees.
“They thought it was staged, that the people were plants,” Mecurio said. “I said, ‘No.’ … They said, ‘Can you do that for more than 20 minutes?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I could do it all day if you gave me people. That’s all I need.’”
“Permission to Speak” opened off-Broadway in 2018, and Mecurio said he’s planning another extended New York run.
At the Schrott, audience members can forget about politics and also not get hung up on the concept of “crowd work”—or the fashionable conversations between comedians and fans that made Matt Rife an arena headliner.
“We don’t want people to think it’s, ‘Oh, I talked to you about your glasses. Then I make fun of you for two minutes and then I move on.’” Mecurio said. “It’s long-form conversations that end up being funny. The stories that we’re getting from people have just been incredible.”
Paul Mecurio: Permission to Speak
- When: 8 p.m. Aug. 24.
- Where: Schrott Center for the Arts, 610 W. 46th St.
- Tickets: $25 to $35.
- Info: Visit butlerartscenter.org.
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