Permission to Speak, featuring Emmy and Peabody Award-winning comedian/actor Paul Mecurio comes to the Tarrytown Music Hall on Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 pm. Fresh off of a critically acclaimed, sold-out run off-Broadway, Permission to Speak features hilarious and jaw-dropping stories from audience members co-starring alongside Mecurio, who punctuates the evening with his own jokes and anecdotes.
In Permission to Speak, audience members volunteer to join Mecurio on stage. With Mecurio at the center of the action, driving and guiding the fun, the evening takes on a life of its own. Mecurio fearlessly, but respectfully, uses humor and compassion to create dynamic exchanges that lead to meaningful and often surprisingly unexpected connections. Audience members are comfortably and confidently empowered to reveal personal stories that are fun, inspiring, compelling and relatable. One fan remarked, “You could see this show a dozen times and never see the same show twice.”
Mecurio has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Sunday Morning, The Tonight Show, HBO, NBC, ABC, MSNBC or his own Comedy Central TV special.
The show’s director, Frank Oz, brings a touch of his movie and TV magic to the stage of Permission to Speak. Frank’s credits include the films Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bowfinger, Stepford Wives, and Little Shop of Horrors. Oz’s close collaboration with Jim Henson, creating and performing many well-loved Muppet characters, led to his iconic work as the voice and puppeteer of Yoda in the Star Wars franchise.
The set of Permission to Speak is comes from 23-time Emmy Award Winner for Production Design, Jim Fenhagen, who is best known for countless late night TV shows, the Olympic Games and five Super Bowls, and animator J.J. Sedelmaier, the artist behind MTV’s Beavis & Butt-Head, Saturday Night Live’s TV Funhouse cartoons, ABC’s relaunch of Schoolhouse Rock, and Cartoon Network’s Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
For all of the high-octane credentials of its star and creators, the real magic of Permission to Speak is the humanity, candor and organic humor of its participants – and Paul. All guests willingly share their fascinating stories, bringing the entire audience on a fun, emotional journey that connects them all.
