The Primary Instinct

Actor Stephen Tobolowsky has been in hundreds of movies and TV shows, from Spaceballs to Groundhog Day to Glee, a familiar face if not exactly a famous name. In the past decade, however, Tobolowsky has embarked on a second career as a storyteller through his podcast and NPR radio show “The Tobolowsky Files.” His first concert film, The Primary Instinct is neither standup comedy nor traditional one-man show, but rather plays like an extension of the podcast, only performed for a live audience. Tobolowsky tells a couple of seemingly unrelated anecdotes and then eases into the theme of the performance—why do we tell stories?—with ruminations on life, death, and the idea of sacred time, illustrated with his own true life details, without ever losing that easy, conversational engagement. The title comes from his mother's motto that “the primary instinct is self-preservation." By the end of the evening, Tobolowsky comes to a different conclusion. David Chen, who produces the podcast, directs the film simply and effectively, while Tobolowsky's physical presence brings a different kind of immediacy and an element of imperfection you don't hear in the audio incarnation. Those stumbles and saves don't just humanize these stories of his life, they also help embody the themes of this engaging and reflective piece. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)