‘Something Flexible’ an Engaging Outing

Eugene Pack remembers a stint as a fourth-grade teacher at an ultra-Orthodox Hebrew school. Not long after his arrival, a stern administrator handed him a paper bag containing a yarmulke, implying that he should start wearing it to class. The hint did not help; Pack was soon fired, he recalls, for being “a loose Jew.”

This typically bittersweet reminiscence closes “Something Flexible With Meaning,” actor-writer Pack’s very engaging, (presumably) semi-autobiographical monologue show at the Tamarind Theatre, directed by Dale Rehfeld.

A prodigiously gifted storyteller, the slightly built Pack casts himself as a self-conscious, slightly frantic loser in an off-center world. His special talent consists of finding ridiculousness amid pathos. As a Long Island teenager, for instance, he felt unsettled when his widowed mother began dating a local catering czar. One night the forlorn boy sought out the pair “in a disco for mature singles called Chapter Two.”

Later, attending a summer drama program at Oxford, he enjoyed a fleeting romance with an English beauty who mistakenly identified him as a cast member of the movie “Fame.” The upshot of this amusing little vignette, like the others, rings true while subtly suggesting a deeper, unspoken level.

As a performer, Pack suggests traces of other comics--a dash of Richard Lewis here, a bit of Woody Allen there--and reveals a decent knack for mimicry. But his is an undeniably original talent. “Something Flexible” promises the start of something big.

* “Something Flexible With Meaning,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Mondays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 18. $10. (213) 782-8540. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.