Back in 1954, Hal Holbrook began the concept of the modern “solo show” in performing Mark Twain, Tonight!. Though records of solo performances date back to the early 1700s (for practical purposes), it wasn’t until his show that later performers like Spalding Gray, Robert Morse and Garrison Keillor (among MANY others) had achieved widespread popularity. Anyone who has ever performed in or seen a solo show knows that Hal Holbrook is the proverbial Godfather of the medium.
So imagine my excitement when Hal Holbrook came around to the Bay Area with his show Mark Twain, Tonight!. I’d never seen this show (I saw the PBS version on TV about 20+ years ago) so it was great timing to check it out for inspiration for my own solo show now in the works. Hal is older now than Mark Twain is in the show (where for many years, he was far younger) and it was a spot-on job of creating this eccentric character. He created nuances that were spellbinding to watch, though the jokes were dated (the same ones for many years!). He did a great re-enactment of a scene from Huckleberry Finn.
After the show, we got to meet him. I asked him what the best advice he could give a young actor in preparation for doing his own solo show would be. Click here to hear the advice he gave me. He also was surprised at how much my wife looks like his wife’s sister…who lives in San Anselmo. 
I think the best thing about his presentation was exactly what he talks about: the presentation style. He speaks directly to the audience most of the time, probably finding the eyes of each and every single audience member throughout the 2-hour show. This is something that Charlie Varon & I were toying around with in the early stages. I don’t think I was totally sold on the idea of eliminating the “fourth wall” (the theatrical term for the imaginary wall between the actor and audience) and the best results of the experimentation seemed to be to break the fourth wall as the narrator character, but not any of the others. This allows the narrator to be “one of them” (an audience member of sorts, watching the same action they are and commenting on it). But makes it more difficult, in my opinion, to “swap” characters between the narrator and anyone else. It’s effective and it works, but now, after seeing Hal do it, it works much smoother and nicer when all the characters break the fourth wall. Each character can have his/her own individual connection with the audience, which is a richer experience for them.
San Rafael
32°