Robert Dubac's Free Range Thinking:
Comedy Beyond the Brick Wall

Dylan Brody
Writer, Humorist

In Free Range Thinking, Robert Dubac presents wisdom disguised as wit and high art in the guise of mass-appeal entertainment. This is no easy feat. Audiences that grew up on the televised stand-up showcase programs of the eighties and nineties have been systematically conditioned to respond to the most generic premises and to reject out of hand anything that smacks of messaging. Older audiences who can remember the comedy heyday of Carlin and Pryor, Saul and Bruce shy away from anything that feels empty or pandering.

Dubac's solution to this issue is as elegant as the script he has written to explore the value of critical thinking in a world that encourages purely Pavlovian behavior. Packaging his show as a theatrical event rather than a stand-up act, he sets a tone that allows a demanding audience to take an interest in what he does. Making the humorous nature of his work apparent in the marketing, he draws in the audience that seeks joyous laughter but never tips his hand, never acknowledges the important undertones of his creation.

Using a delightful array of theatrical devices -- magic tricks, basic neuro-linguistic programming, word play, a blackboard that reveals hidden truth and then becomes a doorway to a less-than-comforting experience of enlightenment -- he delivers all the laughs a person could hope for and a great deal more as well. He offers real insight into the human condition, the struggle to find meaning in a modern world, the quest for one's own identity, the complex structure of belief. From the moment Dubac takes the stage claiming to have lost his memory it is clear that he is a master of his craft, that he controls the moment and that we, the eager audience are in good hands. Dubac embraces his responsibility as a tour guide to the psyche. Chock full of wonderful laughter, joyful surprises and unexpected applause-break moments, Free Range Thinking is a show that is well worth seeing. Seriously.

Satirist Robert Dubac puts "idiocracy" in the hot seat

By John Moore
Denver Post Theatre Critic

When hearing Glenn Beck's name, the first thing that comes to Robert Dubac's mind is: A great defender of F-r-e-e-d-u-m-b of Speech.

Hey! Political satirist Robert Dubac just called me an unpublishable word, just because I won't publish another unpublishable word.  Well, son of a bleep!

In response to our free-association quiz, the actor-comedian described Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell as "America's ..." well, we just can't say it. And for not printing it, Dubac said we're that other word we can't print, either.
"And you wonder why the Internet is taking away your readership?" he teased.
"Of course, if you want to play it safe, here are a couple more but don't say I didn't warn you when The Denver Post goes under for not having a sense of satire: "Option A: Christine O'Donnell ... 'The sole reason Rosie O'Donnell is changing her last name to Hitler.' Or, Option B ... 'Every Republican's happy ending.' "

Dubac calls his peculiar brand of solo comedy "stand-up on steroids." He made his name in the early '90s trading on universal relationship foibles with "The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron?" That's a multi-character juggernaut he developed at small theaters all over Denver and has toured internationally ever since. His new show, "Free Range Thinking," opening Saturday at the Denver Center's Galleria Theatre, is decidedly more pointed. Dubac, who identifies himself as a "repubmocrat-demolican," and describes his religious views as, "Blond, as in . . . "Ohmygod!" targets hypocrisy in politics, religion and the media. He calls his new show "offensive to some; laughter for all."

So, Bob, what's the first thing that comes to mind when we say . . .
Sarah Palin? "English is her second language."
Mel Gibson? "He certainly got Michael Richards off the hook."
Glenn Beck? "A great defender of F-r-e-e-d-u-m-b of Speech."
Was 9/11 an inside job?: "I can't comment, or they'll kill me."
We caught up on other burning issues as well.

Q: What's your take on Obama's presidency so far?
A: Health care and stem-cell research will be his downfall. Not only will it keep old Republicans alive longer, it will fix the mentally challenged ones, as well.
Q: With your new show, who, or what, is most directly in your crosshairs?
A: I go after more of the "what" than the "who." I'm more concerned with the idiocracy that created the idiots than the idiots themselves. For example, idiocracy isn't even a word. How stupid.
Q: Given how truly messed up things are in the world, how in God's name are you going to make that funny in your show?
A: First, I'm not going to do it in God's name, as that would be blasphemous. And we're Americans; we love to make fun of our mistakes and laugh at our neighbors' lack of shame. Good God . . . oops! . . . we invented reality TV and the Darwin Awards, didn't we? "Free Range Thinking" caters to our basic love of a good whine.
Q: So, seriously, what is it going to take to turn this country around?
A: If you're looking for directions on the prosperity highway, just remember two wrongs don't make a right — but two wrongs on Fox News make a political right.
Q: Is organized religion making things better or worse?
A: The fact that an atheist has never set himself up in a duck blind to shoot at people exiting an abortion clinic sort of gives you that answer, doesn't it?
Q: And, finally, is the intellectual man no longer an oxymoron?
A: Correct. Now he's a target. I'll be here for four weeks. Bring ammo.

"High Concept comedy that is Provocative and Smart"
"Brainy and Pleanty of laughs"
"A Razor-sharp Comedian"

Robert Dubac’s latest solo undertaking, FREE RANGE THINKING, is one man's existential journey to find the elusive "truth."  It's an erudite comic trek through all the hypocrisies and half-truths that have left America deeply divided. Dubac is not so much a man without a country as a man without a place in a country that has lost its way.

The veteran comic is older, wiser and still trying to figure out how it is we turned
into a nation of such shallow, ignorant dunderheads as he journeys into the heart of our ignorance. This is high-concept comedy that is provocative and smart; a philosophy lecture with punch lines.

Looking very professorial, Dubac stands before a chalkboard with the words "sex," "race," "religion," "media" and "politics" written on it. These are both his topics of conversation and the targets in his cross hairs.  To make his points, he employs a combination of magic tricks, verbal gymnastics and straight-up observational comedy. Trading on deep divisions that exist in every corner of American life, Dubac almost biblically parts his audience.  No one on the left or right gets out cleanly.

With FREE RANGE THINKING Dubac again blurs the lines between stand-up and theater by his use of multiple characters. Here they're not so much specific people as personifications of our experience, curiosity, reason and common sense.  The bottom line: Dubac is back and brainy with plenty of laughs, a razor-sharp comedian.

"Lightening fast and funny"
"A 21st Century Mark Twain"

He's a bit of a challenge to categorize, with lightning fast, funny delivery of satiric commentary on contemporary culture - that world which both sustains us and frustrates us daily. Is this how a 21st century Mark Twain might sound?

Actor, comedian, writer, director and sometimes magician, Robert Dubac is known in Denver for “The Male Intellect: an Oxymoron,” which played in several Denver theaters in the early ’90s and then toured worldwide. “Free Range Thinking,” newly developed by monologist Dubac plays through Nov. 14 at the Galleria Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex.

Lights up on a tall, slender man with a twinkle in his eye, contemplating a blackboard list of topics: Religion, Race, Sex, Media, Politics. Deft use of an eraser leaves us with Truth.

Who am I? he wonders, claiming to have lost his memory. His phone rings and it’s The Voice of Reason calling to tell him how to open The Door of Truth and Robert enters through it “to seek the truth. We’ll get a bigger picture — in 3D and scratch and sniff. We’ll define what people really mean” he predicts. (The Voice of Reason, he explains, was first heard during the Renaissance and was sacked by Fear of the Unknown masquerading as religion.)

Dubac morphs into a cast of originally created characters emerging one at a time to explain things for the audience.

Uncle Bobby represents experience, and holds forth in his folksy manner on guns, drugs, political parties (he’s had it with both sides) and more.  The Kid is our curiosity and he understands a lot about why adults behave as they do — why they created censorship, for example. Philip Pomeroy is our intelligence, skilled at riding the fence, always compromising and offending everyone. The Colonel stomps in, fussing about “the stupid tax law.” “He paints in black and white, but when he paints, he paints outside the lines.” Mr. Linger, the final personality is our imagination, Dubac explains. He blends religions and other factors together, resulting in a world of color, instead of black and white.

Dubac gives the audience 90 minutes of non-stop entertainment — and some quotes and observations one wishes one would recall to spring on friends! See his world view and relate it to your own.

Free Range Thinking explores the funny side of life's hypocrisies

Robert Dubac's latest foray into the world of stand-up satire explores life's truth and its illusions as only he can. Dubac's Free Range Thinking is fast-paced, loaded with intelligent thought-provoking conundrums and witticism, and always a laugh a minute. On stage, he literally stands in, on and out of the box—mostly out.

Dubac begins telling the audience that he's lost his memory, which is good because can't remember what he believes in and therefore can make fun of beliefs he can't remember. But bad because he offends those who still believe in the beliefs he can't remember (get that?). The rest of the evening runs with that kind of slick humor, with Dubac offering a charming sly smile after each wordplay on the hypocrisies of society.

Dubac takes on different roles to explore truth and illusion. For example, Uncle Bobby is the experienced "everybody's uncle" who's been around the block. He shares his explanation of the difference between truth and non-truth ("bullshit") to The Kid who represents Everyman's curiosity and inexperience, but also our ability to grasp a truth.

Besides the box, Dubac's only prop is a chalkboard on which he writes words that lead into his topics and a cloth that covers up a sexual "illusion." He sprinkles in off-color remarks with just the right amount of frequency—not too often and at the appropriate time. Ditto with his slight-of-hand magic tricks. The 90-minute uninterrupted show plays at the cabaret-style Galleria Theatre at the Denver Center for Performing Arts.