Malibu resident Susan Gabriel will perform at the Improv Comedy Club on Dec. 7.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
“If I was Van Gogh, I would have cut my ear off about 300 times by now,” Susan Gabriel said with a deadpan face.
Gabriel was speaking of the long, arduous, painful and joyous journey that an artist takes to arrive at “Heaven.” “Heaven’s all about location,” she said.
Gabriel is not an easy artist to describe, other than to say that she pretty much covers the gamut-painter, journalist, singer, songwriter, comedian, pianist and flutist. Grace Slick, former lead singer for iconic rock band Jefferson Airplane, once famously introduced Gabriel at a gig with the comment: “Susan has so much talent it’s nauseating.”
Gabriel’s voice is a little bit Bonnie Raitt, a little bit Diana Krall, a little bit Ricki Lee Jones and she has bundled her singing endowment into a potpourri of monologues driven by romantic feminism, original music and stand-up comedy to create a new type of one-woman confessional extravaganza: “Please God Not Another Guitar Player.”
Shaped as a 21st century, solo variety act, Gabriel is presenting an industry showcase at the Improv Comedy Club on Dec. 7, with an eye toward creating a television special.
“This hasn’t really been done before,” Gabriel said, in trying to define the nature of the production. “You can think of it as ‘The Vagina Monologues’ with music or George Carlin meets Ella Fitzgerald.”
Directed by Rocco Urbisci, Emmy Award winner and longtime producer of such comedy luminaries as George Carlin, Jamie Foxx and Lily Tomlin, “Please God,” catalogues Gabriel’s sardonic, but tender riff on the contemporary human condition.
“To learn about love,” Gabriel said, “you have to learn what it is not.”
The show details the personal ache and metaphysical joy of her journey from newsroom powerhouse through personal torment to spiritual peace.
“These days, being with someone without demanding something from them is as scarce as buffalo in Beverly Hills,” she said. “But I’m a recovered compulsive humanitarian. I now see Jesus as a verb: L-O-V-E.”
Gabriel grew up in the tony climes of Larchmont, N.Y. and Wilton, Conn. Her father served a stint as an Air Force pilot before singing professionally and working as an on-air host for a series of variety shows in the ’50s and ’60s, including the Jackie Gleason Show.
“I grew up in television studios,” Gabriel said. “But my teen years saw family suicides and other loss, and I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin working in radio when I was only 19.”
She ended up writing commercials, then newscasts and, by age 20, had the top rated news program in the region.
“I was working on video back when they thought three-quarter inch tape meant a measuring stick,” she said laughing.
Gabriel moved back to New York to sing at night and work with CNN during the day, but she left television news “when it became a game show,” she said. “I thought I was living in the wrong country.”
She never completely left the news arena, however, eventually writing policy reports for Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
She moved to Malibu in 1993 and started writing and singing in one-woman shows, combining jazz standards like “Ain’t Misbehavin'” and “Night and Day” with self-penned torch-like blues. She produced a solo CD, “Burning Into You,” and headlined at clubs like Catalina’s Bar & Grill, backed by musicians such as guitarist Michael Shields and drummer, percussionist and producer Alex Acuna of the jazz-fusion group, Weather Report.
This burst of inspiration culminated in her first one-woman show, “I Am Here,” which debuted at the Smothers Theatre in Malibu in 2002, and a production company, IAH Productions, Inc., whose aim is to provide content for television that “won’t sacrifice quality” for a commercial voice, Gabriel said.
Local resident and Realtor Carol Bird caught Gabriel’s act the first time at the Smothers Theatre and “was totally blown away,” she said. “To have the wit, the music, the voice, the intelligence — all of Susan’s talents combined with this funny, unusual way of looking at life is just incredible.”
Director Urbisci discovered Gabriel’s talent when she performed at his wedding. She immediately drew industry attention.
“Bud Friedman, the owner of the Improv, came up to me and suggested he book her into the club,” Urbisci said. “I came on board to help shape the form, but she already had the show together.”
Urbisci said he was amazed at “her extraordinary voice” but that her story of struggle and redemption is what really attracted him. When asked where he sees the production going, he mused, “It could do a national tour, it could do an HBO special, who knows?”
He thinks the showcase will speak for itself. “Talent-wise,” he said, “Susan’s a complete package.”
Reservations for Susan Gabriel’s “Please God Not Another Guitar Player” at the Improv Comedy Club on Dec. 7 can me made by calling 323.651.2583.