Colin Quinn: Long Story Short

While standup comedy concerts on home video are legion, Long Story Short purports to have an overarching theme—namely, the rise and fall of great empires—as comedian and former Saturday Night Live player Colin Quinn stars in his own self-written Broadway monologue, cracking wise on human behavior and ethnic stereotypes while offering observations on, for example, basic survival instincts taking over when standing in the supermarket checkout line. Filmed in 2011 at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City, Quinn tweaks the material to place everything in chronological historical context, offering a Quinn-tastic view of the world from the Stone Age, through humanity's long march of “progress” (Chinese civilization lasted millennia, built wonders like the Great Wall, yet never came up with more than one hairstyle), and on—clear up to the present day and the post-9/11 climate. Quinn acts out the Iraq War as a drunken saloon fight, with a soused USA constantly insisting Iraq has a gun, a love-smitten England jumping into the fray to keep hitting on longtime on-off sweetheart France, and so on. Some routines miss—or could have come from any open-mic night—but more hit in this slick presentation. Extras include an audio commentary with Quinn and Jerry Seinfeld (who directed the Broadway show), and behind-the-scenes footage. Recommended. Aud: P. (C. Cassady)