NEW YORK—In another life, comedian Colin Quinn just might have been an academic, for he has the innate ability to take a subject, state its purpose and origins in a way easy to understand, and then use what he has imparted as a springboard to multiple other issues before bringing everything back to the starting point. A case in point is his latest one-person vehicle “Small Talk,” which is exactly about that. At least at first. Written and performed by Quinn, this visceral delight of a show is now playing at at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
To hear Quinn tell it, small talk—whether encountering a stranger in an elevator, dropping off clothes at the dry cleaners, waiting with other patients at a doctor’s office, staring at someone across the negotiating table, or meeting them on the battlefield—is one of the most important aspects of communication….