(Photo by Franz Mahr, courtesy of BYT)
Thursday night marked the kickoff of the annual Bentzen Ball, a comedy festival curated by the increasingly influential Tig Notaro and organized by Brightest Young Things.
The festival opened with a performance that first made its appearance in the mid-90s: Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist. The animated half-hour comedy show featured Dr. Katz, a mild-mannered New York psychotherapist whose clients just happened to be a rogue’s gallery of talented comedians and actors. Aside from being a vehicle for his various guests to tell jokes animated by cutaways, and featuring a weekly sprinkling of scenes featuring H. Jon Benjamin as his son Ben and Laura Silverman (Sarah Silverman’s sister) as his steely receptionist Laura, Dr. Katz was ultimately a show about an insightful, lonely, and supportive guy surrounded by hilarious offbeat people.
Much like his cartoon counterpart, the actual Jonathan Katz was funny, insightful, and very attuned to his audience. When DCist had the opportunity to speak with him the day before the show, he was the same way, respectfully asking personal questions and then responding effortlessly with a litany of jokes. Asking about how I met my fiancée (online, don’t hate), Katz responded “I wrote a list ‘reasons I’ve been rejected by Christian Mingle’. The two main reasons were because I’m Jewish and married. Otherwise it would have been a no brainer.”
This was also true about the stage performance, which opened to an energetic packed house at the Lincoln Theater. Appearing on the couch that evening as guests were the stellar Morgan Murphy, Tig Notaro (and her fiancée Stephanie), Janeane Garofolo, and Jim Gaffigan.
In a case of art imitating life, the evening took on a bent that seemed at times very much like a genuine therapy session, with the comedians talking about sex, love, politics, and above all else, family. Jim Gaffigan, who spent his entire time on stage riffing about his family and about being constantly surrounded by children, seemed the most ready to embrace the uncomfortable looking therapist’s couch set on the stage. Katz, ever at the ready with his own retorts, responded to Gaffigan by talking about his own children: “My wife and I have two beautiful daughters, and a couple of other kids that are less attractive.”
This was par for the course, though. While Katz’s guests took up the majority of the time on stage, some of the biggest laughs of the evening came from Dr. Katz’s wry observations, which became particularly insightful when sitting with Tig Notaro. Notaro, who described how her fiancée Stephanie doesn’t like it when she drives (“She says I ‘zoom’”), was joined on stage by Stephanie herself, who stated, “You’re not allowed to drive in certain states. You told me that when we started dating.”
What’s most remarkable about the Dr. Katz performance is his ability to make his guests comfortable, and to find humor quickly. Katz, whose animated show often seemed to act more as a vehicle for people than for himself, was by far the man of the hour. It’s not at all surprising either. Katz has made a career for himself by tying his own original humor to the comedic thoughts of others. Thankfully for the patrons of the first night of the Bentzen Ball, this occurs just as well in person as it does on screen.
The Bentzen Ball runs from October 1 to 4 at various venues. Full ticket and schedule information is available here.
