Gary Gulman gets personal in 'Grandiloquent' off Broadway

In the solo show that marks his Off-Broadway debut, the comedian looks to strike a balance between moving audiences and making them laugh.

“I love finding new words and trying to deploy them when I can,” said Gary Gulman about the term “grandiloquent,” the title of his new Off-Broadway solo comedy show. “The definition feels almost as if it was written about my stand-up vocabulary, because it means ‘to use extravagant language, especially when intended to impress.’” That's also what Gulman hopes to do for audiences of Grandiloquent, an exploration of the lifelong experiences that led him to a comedy career, directed by Tony Award nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

Gulman — who grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts, and attended Boston College on a football scholarship — discovered comedy in a roundabout way. “Through movies and stand-ups on television, I found that laughing would always make me feel better — and making people laugh was exhilarating," he said. “So even when I was playing sports and felt that that might be my vocation, I always thought, ‘What I really want to do is tell jokes. I wish I could get the courage to do that.’”

After finding success on the stand-up circuit and with past television specials, Gulman opened up about his experience with mental health in the 2019 HBO special The Great Depresh to acclaim. Gulman stretched his creative muscles again in 2023, penning the bestselling memoir Misfit. With his Off-Broadway debut on the horizon, Gulman chatted with New York Theatre Guide about what audiences can expect from Grandiloquent, running from January 7 through February 8 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

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What inspired you to pursue Off-Broadway after your success with The Great Depresh?

When I did The Great Depresh, for the first time in my comedy career, I got very personal. It gave me this connection with my audience I had never experienced before. It was just deeper, and the people felt more connected to me. I received different types of feedback about feeling less alone or feeling seen. In getting so much encouragement in that area, I was motivated to seek it out again.

That said, a one-person show is the ideal outlet for something that’s a combination of funny and poignant. It’s a form I’ve really appreciated over the years and have been a little bit intimidated by, to be honest, because it’s not as easy as stand-up, and it provides just enough challenge to make it fun and exciting.

How did audiences' responses to The Great Depresh shift the way you approach comedy?

That’s such a good question. I hadn’t thought of combining documentary with stand-up; that idea came from my manager, Brian Stern. He suggested that, and then he put me in touch with Mike Bonfiglio, who directed [The Great Depresh]. We developed it together, this idea of cutting it into some sort of nonfiction documentary.

When you get to a certain point in comedy, you look for certain challenges to make it a bit more difficult. I don’t want to talk only about my experience with mental illness, or, in the last show I did, I talked mostly about income inequality and growing up impoverished. This Grandiloquent show is almost a prequel to The Great Depresh in which I talk about how my mental state got to where it was: my upbringing, my family, and a lot of the neuroses and hang-ups that led me to doing the type of comedy I do.

How did your partnership with Moritz von Stuelpnagel come about?

I was given his name by the producers of the show, Mike Lavoie and Carlee Briglia. I met with him, and within a few minutes, I thought, “Oh, I feel very comfortable. He’s very smart, he’s very patient with my questions, and he has some great insights about working with comedians and actors in developing projects.” Then when we started working, he provided so much content. I’d say, “Is this worth saying? It doesn’t get a laugh, but is this important to the show and the points I’m trying to get across?”

That’s the biggest difference between stand-up, the one-man show, and acting performances. With stand-up, you know right away whether something worked in terms of the humor. So that’s been so helpful. Stand-up can be very solitary, and in some ways that’s good, but in others it can be very lonely in that you’re spending so much time in your head. Working with Moritz has been a really refreshing experience.

How did you find comedy after going to college on a football scholarship?

Some of my earliest memories are of me saying funny things in front of my family and getting laughs — and more important, getting attention, because I was the youngest. After college, I did an open mic in Boston, on October 11, 1993. Since then, even if I wasn’t being paid like a full-time comedian, I was putting in the time of a full-time performer. I had other jobs along the way — as a substitute teacher, a Starbucks barista, a waiter, a doorman — all to support my comedy habit. That’s how I became a comedian, and it’s been a dream come true.

How have your peers inspired you to do theatre? With Grandiloquent, you’re joining many other comedians who have performed on and off Broadway.

Sometimes I just sit in awe of performers like Kate Berlant, Jacqueline Novak, Mike Birbiglia, and Colin Quinn because they are able to do what they got into this business to do, which is make people laugh. But it’s also this added dimension of revealing certain aspects of humanity.

Maybe you don’t notice that with a lot of these people, you’re learning things. You’re learning about human nature, or, in one of Mike Birbiglia’s shows, having his first child. You learn about parenthood, fatherhood, childbirth, all these things. The best teachers, a lot of the time, those who we remember the most, are the ones who make us laugh.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Photo credit: Gary Gulman. (Photo by Deborah Feingold)