It’s been a few decades since Gary Gulman witnessed the local mystique of Le Grand David at The Cabot as a kid enthralled with the world of magic. Now, as he makes his way back to his old North Shore stomping grounds this week to occupy that very stage himself in support of his book and a new hour of stand-up, that mystique is sure to return with a bit of evolution tied to it.
With a two-night stay at The Cabot starting tonight (March 14), the Peabody native brings his latest stand-up tour back to the commonwealth to celebrate his 2023 memoir Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the ‘80s. While it’s exciting for him to bring this collection of stories and reflections back even closer to home this time (and fill in the details in between with his fresh hour of stand-up), Gulman is also just pumped to be able to deliver some new jokes that are incredibly specific to the area — even if he’s feeling a bit ambivalent towards possibly enabling the provincial North Shore lifers who refuse to make their way into Boston.
“The last time I was in Beverly at North Shore Music Theatre, I told the story of the 1980s mall wars between Liberty Tree Mall and the North Shore Shopping Center, which was a very localized civil war, and I just love telling those stories,” Gulman tells Vanyaland. “The other thing that I’m excited about is that it’s kind of a weird reunion where a lot of people I went to school with or who are from my hometown will be there, but it’s a type of controlled reunion where I get to talk for two hours and nobody can interrupt me. Then I get to mingle with them after the show for a very short time, just long enough for them to tell me how nice it is to see me. I hope I’m not a narcissist, but it’s like a narcissist’s dream reunion where you have to devote very little emotion, and just talk for a long time.”
While writing a book was a new creative venture for Gulman for a plethora of reasons, it also challenged his usual processes that he employs when building a new stand-up set. However, he does feel he had an immediate advantage of having developed a voice in stand-up over the years that worked well in transcribing his thoughts onto paper. Not to mention, he also had a pandemic’s worth of time to make mistakes in writing, iron them out and turn them into a new strength that helped him hone in on the elements of reading and listening audiobooks that he enjoys as an avid reader himself.
“There were certain jokes and certain important points that I wanted to make,” says Gulman, “and when I struggled [to type them out], I would apply the same process I use with a stand-up joke that I’m trying to nail, and that’s the process of writing it out in different ways, changing words in and out, and then I would also be saying it out loud because there’s a rhythm I want in my stand-up. I was also aware of my desire to do an audio version of the book, because I’m a huge fan of audiobooks. Especially memoirs, and I really appreciate it when the author reads it. It was important all along the way that I was able to deliver the things I wrote in a compelling and mellifluous way where, although this might sound pretentious, there’s a poetry to it.”
That poetry and deeper attention to rhythm and flow also helped Gulman as he returned to the stage following the pandemic shutdowns, and that resulted in his evolution as a storyteller. Many of those storytelling elements were employed as he built what would become his most recent stand-up HBO special, Born on 3rd Base, which showcased a new confidence that the former Boston College Eagle commanded the stage with.
In some ways, he took inspiration from a couple of comedians he’s admired for a long time, particularly George Carlin and Brian Regan, as his latest special volleys between lighthearted jokes, reflections of childhood, faith, his own money troubles and resentment toward the ultra-wealthy, and a long story at the end that he was able to hang a bunch of quick but well-crafted jokes onto.
Not only did it make for a multi-layered offering that exhibits all of Gulman’s greatest comedic and creative strengths to his audience, but it also posed as a fun and exciting challenge for him internally, as he continued to work in areas that he may not have been comfortable in before.
“My favorite example of that is George Carlin, where there would be really silly wordplay and light stuff, then he’d switch into really heavy social and political commentary that could be strident, there were scatalogical jokes about bodily functions and stuff like that, and there was very traditional observational comedy, and some insight and analysis into words and trends,” adds Gulman. “That was sort of his collage of what a special was, and what I like to do is mix a lot of different ideas into jokes, so that even when I’m talking about my childhood, I’m also doing a strict, traditional observation about pop tarts, and then there’s class commentary. I remember reading something Brian Regan had said about how whenever he’s in an area that he becomes known for, whether it’s talking about food, or the dumb guy voice, or being physical, he tries to write away from it, and I think that’s a really good position to take in terms of keeping it interesting, creative and challenging.”
Also taking inspirations from a slight imperfection in an Edward Hopper painting and the meticulous combing that Bruce Springsteen employs when writing a new song, Gulman is forever intrigued by the ability to take a joke or premise and handpick each word to make it as strong as it can possibly be. At the very foundation, Gulman just enjoys the fact that he’s found a profession in which reading and dissecting words has been a huge part of being able to do his job and to get better at it as time goes on.
“I love the song ‘A Day In The Life’ by The Beatles, where it starts out with him reading the newspaper about this guy who committed suicide at a traffic light. I don’t know if it was true story, but even as a child when I first heard that song, when Lennon says ‘he blew his mind out in a car,’ I remember realizing that if he had said he blew his brains out in a car, it’s a very different song, and it just hits a different way,” he says. “It’s possible that it’s an expression that the British use, but it’s also possible that he recognized the sound and the rhythm of that. I also love how that song becomes two or three different songs, with changes in tone and time signatures and everything, and whenever I can apply something from a different artform to comedy, it’s a nice way to be original while you’re not really being that original. You’re just taking a concept from another artform, and I admire that.”
Acknowledging how fortunate he feels to have an audience that is thoughtful, patient and generous with their attention, and appreciates what he does, Gulman has found a significant amount of catharsis in the process of rehashing and building onto these stories in front of audiences. In a lot of ways, he sees it as a sort of revenge on the pain and trauma of yesteryear, and a testament to the fact that he was hurt, but never folded and wound up making something cool out of it.
As a reader who enjoys biographies and memoirs, Gulman had been duped before when it comes to comedians just typing out a stand-up set and putting it out under the disguise of a memoir. With his opportunity, he didn’t want to do that because of his respect for authors and the business of books, and his equal disdain for the venture becoming a cynical cash grab. Instead, what he wanted to accomplish within the pages and detailed reflections is offer up what he appreciates about other memoirs he’s read where the author helps the reader get into the mind of another person.
“One thing that I want the book to do for people is what certain books, songs, films and television did for me,” says Gulman. “For instance, the book’s title comes from the Rush song ‘Subdivisions,’ where he says ‘Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone,’ and I want people who are misfits, and that’s most of us for the most part, who have been in situations or who can empathize with situations where they felt left out or out of their element, or in a position where they felt less seen, to feel less alone. Something that I find hard to believe, but it’s something I’m realizing is that there are some people who think of me as somebody who wouldn’t have had a difficult time making friends, or creating, or being an athlete, and I want them to be able to see that it’s important to understand the backgrounds and stories of other people, because that’s just the basis of empathy and compassion.”
GARY GULMAN ::Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15 at Cabot Theatre, 286 Cabot St. in Beverly, MA :: 8 p.m., $47 to $86.50 :: Advance tickets