Coleman Looks at Inner Climate of Absurdities

Fritz Coleman, veteran weatherman on KNBC-TV Channel 4, observes life with a sardonic detachment one doesn’t typically associate with his profession. Forecasting the weather in a city that has none presents an existential irony, of which Coleman is well aware.

Coleman ponders this and others of life’s subtle absurdities in “It’s Me! Dad!,” his acridly funny one-man show at the Actor’s Forum. In addition to being a weather forecaster, Coleman is also a seasoned (seasonal?) stand-up comic. A fellow doesn’t get this full of pith and vinegar by accident.

A familiarly angular figure, Coleman stays seated behind a desk for much of his one-man show, addressing a downstage video camera. The concept is simple: Coleman is ostensibly videotaping his “off-the-cuff” thoughts and reminiscences for posterity, in particular for his two young sons to view when they grow up.

It’s a somewhat tired device, seen too often in film and television, but bolstered here by Coleman’s evident sincerity of intention. After the death of his father a couple of years back, Coleman was dismayed to realize how little he knew about the man. His retrospective regret triggered an urgent impulse to leave his own children some more palpable sense of what kind of man their father was, just in case he might not be around long enough to communicate the information himself.

The result is often riotous. In a bracing stream-of-sarcasm, Coleman touches on topics ranging from his WASP antecedents to his failed marriage. Included are amusing riffs about Episcopalianism, the stupidity of dropping out of college during the Vietnam conflict (Coleman enlisted in the Navy and spent a serendipitous tour of duty in the Mediterranean) and the inability of his baby boomer peers to take responsibility for their own actions.

In a particularly refreshing digression, Coleman details the high anxiety of dating after so many years of monogamy, especially when many of the women he encounters have undergone face-to-feet surgical enhancement. It’s a new wrinkle--or lack thereof--that Coleman can do without. “That’s not beauty. It’s the witness protection program!” he laments.

Despite his frequent protestations that he is a Type-A bundle of nerves, Coleman has an offhanded ease that is tremendously appealing. Yet his performance suffers from odd pauses between monologues and a general imprecision that comes with under-blocking.

No director is credited in the program, and in this regard, Coleman does himself a disservice. An objective observer could smooth the transitions, shake up the occasionally static staging and more impress on Coleman the vital distinction between stand-up and acting.

At his best, however, Coleman combines a sardonic folksiness with the keen observational powers of the natural-born storyteller. In the future, he should try stretching beyond the autobiographical and commenting more generally on his life and times. Common-sensical social satire of this order is in short supply. Coleman could go a long way toward making up the shortfall.

* “It’s Me! Dad!,” Actor’s Forum Theatre, 10655 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Wednesdays only, 8 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $10. (818) 506-0600. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.