{"id":281953,"date":"2012-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/steinbergs-playhouse-workshop-will-be-big-or-not\/"},"modified":"2012-08-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T07:00:00","slug":"steinbergs-playhouse-workshop-will-be-big-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/steinbergs-playhouse-workshop-will-be-big-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Steinberg\u2019s Playhouse workshop will be big &#8230; or not"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Legendary comedian David Steinberg is bringing his latest production-in-development to the La Jolla Playhouse for seven workshop performances, giving audience members the rare opportunity to help shape the product of his one-man comedy show. Steinberg, whose longstanding career in comedy has taken him down various roads in the industry, will bring audience members along for the humorous journey of his life in show business. In addition to earning numerous accolades over his lifetime \u2014 including Directors Guild of America and Emmy Award nominations for his work on hit television situation comedies like &#8220;Seinfeld,&#8221; &#8220;Mad About You&#8221; and &#8220;Curb Your Enthusiasm&#8221; and two Grammy nominations for his comedy albums \u2014 Steinberg has also appeared on Johnny Carson\u2019s &#8220;Tonight Show&#8221; more than 130 times, making him second only to Bob Hope in number of guest appearances on the show. Now 70, the Canadian-born comedian sources much of his content from the story of his life, which he says has been a &#8220;rich, unique \u2014 and some might say weird \u2014 one.&#8221; &#8220;Having come from Canada, having been on the \u2018Tonight Show\u2019 so much, having started at The Second City improv group, and having been involved with a ton of celebrities because I\u2019ve been \u2014\u00a0and still am \u2014 a director gives me content for the show,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What you want is a point of view that is totally yours and totally unique, that is entertaining and funny. That\u2019s the goal.&#8221; Although most people may have not experienced a Steinberg-esque lifestyle as a showman in Hollywood, audience members can still relate to the human experiences Steinberg presents in his performance. &#8220;Everything lends itself to humor if you just see it that way,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What makes it comedic is a comedy person. Comedy can\u2019t be taught, you have to be born that way. Basically since I was 16 or 17, I\u2019ve been in front of audiences \u2014 not professionally but by circumstance \u2014\u00a0and never thinking I was going to be a comedian, but it worked out that way.&#8221; His stand-up show at the La Jolla Playhouse will be unique in that it is a workshop performance that is ever evolving, based partly on the audience\u2019s reaction to his content. &#8220;It\u2019s being developed in front of your eyes as you\u2019re watching it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The reaction I\u2019m always looking for is laughter. People crying \u2014 that\u2019s a reaction I\u2019m not interested in \u2014 or demanding their money back.&#8221; The likes of John Leguizamo and Billy Crystal \u2014 both of whom Steinberg has worked with and influenced \u2014 have hit the very same playhouse stage for their own workshop comedy performances in the past. &#8220;They\u2019re actually one of the best for this sort of thing. [Former playhouse artistic director] Des McAnuff who did it in the past ran these kind of things, and [artistic director] Christopher Ashley is continuing it now,&#8221; he said of why he chose the La Jolla Playhouse to develop his comedic performance. &#8220;It seemed like the right idea.&#8221; His performance will combine any number of life experiences, opinions and ideas. &#8220;My wife will be the first to tell you \u2014\u00a0I wake up with opinions. That shows you how unarticulated they are, but I have them. I came from an improv background and have a lot to say about everything,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I\u2019ll probably do some old material and make it retro by just analyzing it from today\u2019s point of view.&#8221; Although no two performances will be the same, Steinberg assures that &#8220;none will be embarrassing.&#8221; He said he looks forward to having an audience and hearing their reaction to his performance. &#8220;The most exciting thing is usually just the little things, like \u2018Is there an audience that is coming to see it?\u2019 And that seems to be happening big time, so that\u2019s already exciting. That\u2019s something to never take for granted, so that already gives me some impetus to do my best,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I\u2019m looking forward to hearing the laughter, and I\u2019m interested to hear what the audience has to say about it.&#8221; Due to the looser nature of the workshop performance, Steinberg can move content around in his show or hold Q&#038;A sessions after the performances to gauge his audience\u2019s interest in certain topics. &#8220;You don\u2019t really change it. You move things around, and you try to surprise yourself by leaving out something, heading into another area, wondering how much you can go in one direction to something being funny as opposed to being offensive,&#8221; he said. &#8220;People will let you know just by how they\u2019re listening to you whether it is compelling or not.&#8221; With Steinberg\u2019s longstanding career amid the best of the best in the industry, hilarity is certain to ensue in his upcoming performances. &#8220;When you\u2019re doing an hour show, you want the audience to have laughed. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be a problem, but you also want to leave them with a little more than that, and what that little more is, is what I\u2019ll try to find out in the next couple weeks,&#8221; he said. Steinberg\u2019s &#8220;A First Workshop Performance with Legendary Comedian David Steinberg: That Could Turn Into Something Big \u2026 or Not&#8221; will take place on Aug. 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. All performances will take place at the La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre, located at 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. Tickets are $20 and are available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lajollaplayhouse.org\"> www.lajollaplayhouse.org<\/a> or by calling (858) 550-1010. For updates and information about David Steinberg, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedavidsteinberg.com\"> www.thedavidsteinberg.com<\/a> or on Twitter at @david_steinberg.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legendary comedian David Steinberg is bringing his latest production-in-development to the La Jolla Playhouse for seven workshop performances, giving audience members the rare opportunity to help shape the product of his one-man comedy show. Steinberg, whose longstanding career in comedy has taken him down various roads in the industry, will bring audience members along for [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Steinberg\u2019s Playhouse workshop will be big ... or not","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}