Here we have an interview with my friend Jim Brochu, who is currently The King of Off-Broadway in New York playing Zero Mostel in the one-man show, Zero Hour. I've known Jim since the day we were hiring writers on the infamous variety show, Pink Lady. He came in to "audition" (chat) and as I was walking him out, he joked, "I live to grovel." That's a line from my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I responded with another line from the show and he did another line…and pretty soon, we'd done about half the show in the outer office there, stopping just short of singing a few choruses of "Everyone Ought to Have a Maid."
Jim told me he'd not only seen the original production with Zero (envy, envy) but had gone backstage. His mentor in the theater was David Burns, who was the original Senex in the show. We talked of the play for a while and in that moment, we bonded and I thought, "Hmm, maybe we oughta hire this guy." Remember the line in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz where Roy Scheider says, "See? That's how you get a job." Well, that's how you get a job.
Anyway, I often talked about Zero with Jim, little realizing my pal would soon become him. Jim always had an innate understanding of…well, I was about to type "performers" but it probably applies to all human beings. We are, after all, all performers in some sense. That insight is evident in his play, which is currently viewable at the Actor's Temple Theater in New York. Click here for more details on how you can go see it, which I heartily recommend. And now, here's Jim…
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