So let's be clear. Paul Mecurio won't be stripping naked and coming on-stage with a goat.
Don't expect bodily humor in this New York City comic's standup. Forget the sex jokes from a former Emmy award winning staff writer for Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” And there is absolutely no way this former Wall Street attorney who gave it all up for comedy will riff on Auburn's crows.
What you will hear when he takes the stage this weekend for four shows at the Auburn Public Theater is some self-described “thoughtful,” dry and funny observations on life.
An example: He was befuddled that last year the United States considered raising the award for the capture of Osama bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million.
“Was there some dude in Afghanistan ... How can I possibly decorate this cave with $25 million? I have to go to Home Depot; it's very expensive to decorate. That wasn't the problem,” Mecurio said.
Mecurio likes to take something that strikes him as odd and make a joke out of it, something that might make his audience wonder about it too. The other pillars of standup -making fun of the local municipality butt of the joke, perennial fascination with farting - is “fast food humor,” Mecurio said, “And 20 minutes later, you are hungry. I hope that my humor leaves people still thinking 20 minutes later in the parking lot.”
It's not that Mecurio takes himself too seriously. He plumbs his own life's comical lows for humor. He's a man who twice left the high-powered, high-paying world of merger and acquisition deals to do standup in sleezy dive bars.
His then-girlfriend, and now wife, thought he was cheating on her because he came home smelling of booze and cigarette smoke, but Mecurio couldn't break it to anyone quite yet that selling some jokes to Jay Leno was more thrilling to him.
The first time he quit Wall Street Mecurio was audited by the IRS because they thought he was hiding money when his income dropped so precipitously. The auditor didn't believe that Mecurio had given it all up to do standup. He freaked out, got another job in the suit world, but within the year he was gone again, called by the power of being on stage.
“I think I just liked the idea of creating something from nothing and the power was mine,” Mecurio said.
It was Mecurio's smart humor that attracted Angela Daddabbo, co-owner of the APT with husband Carey Eidel, to try to land Mecurio for the gig in Auburn.
Daddabbo was in New York City visiting an old and dear friend, John Mackay, an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, when they wrangled their way into a taping of “The Daily Show.”
Mecurio has been doing audience warm-up and some occasional writing between his standup tour and the development of two TV shows.
The key thing of a warm-up guy is “you have to be really, really, really good so the audience doesn't turn on you, but you can't be so good that you're better than the guy you're warming up for,” Daddabbo said.
But Daddabbo couldn't decide if she liked Mecurio or Stewart better, so she shot Mecurio an e-mail, saying Stewart must be a confident guy to let him warm-up for him.
That started the conversation about getting Mecurio to APT. Mecurio was attracted to come to Auburn because of Daddabbo's and Eidel's effort with the APT and because of his own small-town rearing in Rhode Island.
Mecurio has been focusing on the TV show development more than standup recently. An audience interaction show called “Mob Rule,” based on Mecurio's standup is in the works. A pilot of “Sports Central,” a comedy sports show making fun of film clips of the sports world that Mecurio created with Jim Jones, a former “Mad TV” producer, is being shopped to networks.
“It's sort of the inner voice of ‘The Daily Show.' It's irreverent but not mean,” Mecurio said.
But for this weekend, Mecurio will be just focused on Auburn.
“This is it,” Daddabbo said. “Everyone who is going out in Auburn is going to go out to this.”
If you go
What: Paul Mecurio
When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St., Auburn
Tickets: $15
For seats:Call 253-6669 or purchase tickets at the door; doors open at 6:30 p.m. for cash bar and refreshments; IDs required
What you will hear when he takes the stage this weekend for four shows at the Auburn Public Theater is some self-described “thoughtful,” dry and funny observations on life.
An example: He was befuddled that last year the United States considered raising the award for the capture of Osama bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million.
“Was there some dude in Afghanistan ... How can I possibly decorate this cave with $25 million? I have to go to Home Depot; it's very expensive to decorate. That wasn't the problem,” Mecurio said.
Mecurio likes to take something that strikes him as odd and make a joke out of it, something that might make his audience wonder about it too. The other pillars of standup -making fun of the local municipality butt of the joke, perennial fascination with farting - is “fast food humor,” Mecurio said, “And 20 minutes later, you are hungry. I hope that my humor leaves people still thinking 20 minutes later in the parking lot.”
It's not that Mecurio takes himself too seriously. He plumbs his own life's comical lows for humor. He's a man who twice left the high-powered, high-paying world of merger and acquisition deals to do standup in sleezy dive bars.
His then-girlfriend, and now wife, thought he was cheating on her because he came home smelling of booze and cigarette smoke, but Mecurio couldn't break it to anyone quite yet that selling some jokes to Jay Leno was more thrilling to him.
The first time he quit Wall Street Mecurio was audited by the IRS because they thought he was hiding money when his income dropped so precipitously. The auditor didn't believe that Mecurio had given it all up to do standup. He freaked out, got another job in the suit world, but within the year he was gone again, called by the power of being on stage.
“I think I just liked the idea of creating something from nothing and the power was mine,” Mecurio said.
It was Mecurio's smart humor that attracted Angela Daddabbo, co-owner of the APT with husband Carey Eidel, to try to land Mecurio for the gig in Auburn.
Daddabbo was in New York City visiting an old and dear friend, John Mackay, an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, when they wrangled their way into a taping of “The Daily Show.”
Mecurio has been doing audience warm-up and some occasional writing between his standup tour and the development of two TV shows.
The key thing of a warm-up guy is “you have to be really, really, really good so the audience doesn't turn on you, but you can't be so good that you're better than the guy you're warming up for,” Daddabbo said.
But Daddabbo couldn't decide if she liked Mecurio or Stewart better, so she shot Mecurio an e-mail, saying Stewart must be a confident guy to let him warm-up for him.
That started the conversation about getting Mecurio to APT. Mecurio was attracted to come to Auburn because of Daddabbo's and Eidel's effort with the APT and because of his own small-town rearing in Rhode Island.
Mecurio has been focusing on the TV show development more than standup recently. An audience interaction show called “Mob Rule,” based on Mecurio's standup is in the works. A pilot of “Sports Central,” a comedy sports show making fun of film clips of the sports world that Mecurio created with Jim Jones, a former “Mad TV” producer, is being shopped to networks.
“It's sort of the inner voice of ‘The Daily Show.' It's irreverent but not mean,” Mecurio said.
But for this weekend, Mecurio will be just focused on Auburn.
“This is it,” Daddabbo said. “Everyone who is going out in Auburn is going to go out to this.”
If you go
What: Paul Mecurio
When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St., Auburn
Tickets: $15
For seats:Call 253-6669 or purchase tickets at the door; doors open at 6:30 p.m. for cash bar and refreshments; IDs required
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