Michael Garin: Punch in the Mouth

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Michael Garin

Punch in the Mouth

Metropolitan Room, NYC, November 16, 2015

Reviewed by Victoria Ordin for Cabaret Scenes

Michael-Garin-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212Cabaret is a hybrid art form—part acting, part singing, part stand-up—and a large splash of shtick. When a show works, it’s because all elements fuse in some ineffable way that transports you for an hour or so from your daily life to a space of smiles, laughter and, occasionally, tears.
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Long on shtick, Michael Garin’s Punch in the Mouth succeeds wildly on all levels as it ranges over musical traditions as diverse as Afro-Cuban, Arabic/Israeli folk, jazz, and blues.

After the high-energy opener, “Surf Carmen” (Bizet/Kern)—a track off Garin’s recent album with classically-trained singer and wife Mardie Millit (Hey Look! It’s Michael and Mardie)—the 61-year-old Garin said that he “tends to value experiences more than things”: “Things break, get lost, and collect dust. Experiences grow exaggerated and less accurate over time.” The insight is typical of his self-deprecating attitude about a life in show business that hasn’t always been easy, but has always been rich with extraordinary encounters. Like the best cabaret artists, Garin transitions seamlessly from story to song, reminding insiders what life as a musician in 1980s New York was like, and generously giving outsiders (or “young-uns”) a view into that bygone era. Anecdotes about Frank Zappa at the Limelight, Elaine Stritch at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Anita Baker at the Apollo, and Spike Lee on Do the Right Thing (for which Garin hilariously and improbably looped racial slurs) were equally entertaining.

In a show with material this strong, it’s hard to single our favorite numbers, but “Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry)/”Chug a Lug” (Roger Miller), “I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So” (Duke Ellington/Mack David), and “Never Pay Musicians What They’re Worth” (Eric Frandsen/Garin/Bob Hipkens/Paula Lockheart) certainly stood out. Also wonderful was “Tears of a Clown” (Stevie Wonder/Henry Cosby/Smokey Robinson), a tribute to Elaine Stritch with whom he came to terms after an amusingly rocky start at Williamstown.
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Near the end of the show, Garin shifted emotional gears, speaking with pride and love about his two grown sons, and emotionally about his father, who was raised by a single mother in Germany. Following a beautiful but heartbreaking rendition of the Yiddish lullaby “Oyfn Pripetshik” (W.W. Warshawsky), Garin lightened the mood: “Damn allergies” (a reference to the tears in his and most of our eyes). The show finished as gregariously as it began with the “Encore Shuffle” (Garin) and “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” (Prima), a duet with Millit.