Jimmy Tingle's show unique and funny

In Davis Square, across from the Dunkin Donuts, there hangs a sign with flashing lights that reads "Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway: Jimmy Tingle in the Promised Land." Seeing this sign leads one to wonder: Who is this Tingle character?

It turns out that he is a native of Cambridge and has a thicker Boston accent than your average Somerville cab driver. Tingle recently bought the theatre space in Davis Square and renamed it "Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway." The theater opened in December with Tingle's new one-man show that blends his talent as a stand-up comic specializing in social and political humor with some moving post-9/11 thoughts.

The show incorporates the use of two television screens. Tingle begins the show telling the audience about his past and brings them up to the point where he filled in the Andy Rooney spot for CBS' 60 Minutes II. He then leaves the audience as the lights dim and the audience gets to see a couple of his commentaries from the show. This choice is a bit hard to follow but remains very bold and original, nonetheless.

At first, his decision to actually show clips from the show _ in addition to his anecdotes about the whole experience _ comes off as self-promoting. Yet, his commentaries are original, funny and insightful. So once the audience makes the jump, the video interludes do not slow down the pace of the show, although they are never as entertaining as the live part of the act.

The video monitors are used later in the show, but with a lot more success. Following the 60 Minutes II portion, Tingle moves on to tell about his life after he was let go from the show. He explains that following 9/11 he did not feel comfortable doing comedy and so he turned to poetry. As he shares his poetry, which he calls 911: Prayer for America, the lights come down and the monitors play clips of post-9/11 images.

This poetic technique hits the audience hard. Tingle delivers his moving words with somber grace as the audience sees the now all-too-familiar images of the towers collapsing, ground zero, people's reactions, etc. His poem touches a chord within all Americans as we try to deal with the events of that day and the hole it has left within us all. He repeats over and over the theme of filling that hole and how difficult it can be to do so _ an experience everyone can understand.

Unfortunately, when the lights come up and Tingle goes back to his regular stand-up mode, his lack of theater training hurts him. The transition, or lack thereof, kills the moment for the audience. As an actor, it is Tingle's job to make transitions for the audience. Instead, he lets the audience make them on their own, a decision that leaves the audience hanging for a minute when he goes back into his comedy.

In fact, his transitions were the weakest part of the production. Tingle would change from somber to stand-up without alerting the audience that he had done so and the audience had to catch up. Giving the audience no way to separate the poetry from the laughs except for a lighting change certainly took away from the power of the juxtaposition.

Yet what Tingle lacks in theatrical training, he makes up for in a powerful stage presence fine tuned by his years of stand-up. He has an unbelievably good sense of timing. Even when one thinks his joke is going too long, one soon finds out that Tingle had timed it perfectly to deliver a beautiful punch line. He keeps the audience reeling with laughter and hungry for more. Tingle earns his laughs with his witty political humor. He understands the greater picture. He is a devout Catholic but he understands the hypocrisy of church politics; he is a leftist but he understands the faults of Democratic leaders. In short, Tingle is a comic who understands that his role is not simply to make the audience laugh about the state we are in, but to comprehend it and deal with it as well.

Despite some rough transitions, the show is very entertaining and Tingle is well-worth seeing. So, the next time you walk by that sign with the flashing lights after getting your cup of coffee at Dunkin, stop in and see Jimmy Tingle's version of the "promised land."

Jimmy Tingle in the Promised Land is playing through March 2nd at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway in Davis Square. Tickets are $20, or two-for-one with a Tufts ID. Tickets are available by calling 617-591-1616 or online at http://www.jimmytingle.com/JTOB.asp. If you order the tickets by phone or online, there will be a service charge.