Comic Snapshots at the ‘Joe Show’

In “Joe Show,” at UpFront Comedy Showcase in Santa Monica, solo performer Joe Liss offers vignettes of six eccentrics from one Chicago neighborhood.

With his putty features and gift for mimicry, Liss comes well-equipped for the mission. These are seamless, highly individualized portrayals: The imperious acting coach with the faux British accent remains amazingly distinct in speech and movement from the salty old lady who runs the local Laundromat and the loser salesman who lives in his mother’s basement, and so on.

Yet Liss and director-co-writer Ron West have a hard time making the material add up to much. There are some scattered funny moments. A cab-driving barfly, for instance, relates his life story as though inspired by Harrison Ford movies. What’s missing, though, is a thematic thread or set of insights that might give these disparate comic snapshots unity and a larger significance.

* “Joe Show,” UpFront Comedy Showcase, 123 Broadway, Santa Monica. Fridays, 9 p.m. Open run. $10. (310) 319-3477. Running time: 1 hour.