"It's my sense that audiences are on to them, and the taste for stages bereft of bodies is already on the wane. But as with all forms, there are highs and lows of the genre and, before you swear off the solo act, you should see Julio Torres 's irresistible new one with its pop-up furniture and a bossy little robot named Bibo."
"Young (enough), queer, hilarious, and, most important, legit , he's a writer-performer who's messing around with the stand-up form, treating comedy less like paintball and more like Silly Putty. He also has the kind of sui generis brain you want to take a trippy vacation in, like Alice down the rabbit hole or, if you happened to share a childhood with me, Donald in Mathmagic Land."
Solo shows proliferated in the late-COVID era as theaters sought to cut costs and rely on marketable names, and audience appetite for stages bereft of bodies is waning. Financially strained producers increasingly spend on single stars to recoup losses, producing highs and lows within the form. Julio Torres offers a refreshing example with a show featuring pop-up furniture and a bossy robot named Bibo. Torres blends gentle absurdism, childlike make-believe, and inventive defamiliarization across his HBO special My Favorite Shapes and the new Color Theories. He treats comedy like malleable material, guiding viewers through surreal containers and playful examinations of color.
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