Robert Wuhl looks at history and legend in 'Assume the Position'

NEW HAVEN -- The last time actor and comedian Robert Wuhl was at Long Wharf Theatre, he got fired.

He was in rehearsal for a play called "Paper Doll" in 2003, and it was a bit of a difficult time.

"The production wasn't going well," Wuhl recalled during a recent interview with the Register. "The director made me a scapegoat."

Lucky for us Wuhl didn't bear a grudge against the city ("I had a great time in New Haven," he said) or the theater. On Saturday, Wuhl comes back to Long Wharf with his one-man show, "Assume the Position ... with Mr. Wuhl," the stage adaptation of his HBO special of the same name.

This time around, his experience at Long Wharf will undoubtedly be more triumphant. He's already performed "Assume the Position" at similar theaters to rave reviews, once in his hometown of Union, N.J., after which the performance date was named Robert Wuhl Day.

The show itself has gone through something of a metamorphosis, as has Wuhl's career. Starting out as a stand-up comedian, Wuhl landed small but memorable parts in several iconic films -- "Bull Durham" and "Good Morning, Vietnam," just to name a couple, after appearing as a sycophant in Madonna's video for her song, "Material Girl."

Wuhl said he would like to be able to say that he chose his parts carefully, with a career trajectory in mind, but it's "just not true."

"The Madonna video came along at a time when I needed it," he said. "I was lucky to get jobs. I was very fortunate."

Since then Wuhl has, to some degree, been able to write his own ticket, or at least his own show. "Arli$$," written by and starring Wuhl was a hit for HBO, as was the first and, later, the second installment of "Assume the Position."

Wuhl's one-man show began humbly, with the performer staging workshops at several colleges. "Assume the Position" is comedic historical commentary, and it was striking, Wuhl said, to see which student audiences -- the first few no larger than five individuals -- knew their history. In many cases, the audiences were better at smaller colleges.

"The knowledge of history is in direct disproportion to how expensive the college is," Wuhl said.

In the show, Wuhl debunks commonly held historical beliefs, and attempts to educate his audience on how history tends to mix legend and fact, and how legend can become fact.

But the stage version of "Assume the Position" is more than historical commentary, more than comedy. At the heart of the show, is the desire to tell a story.

"I love a good story," Wuhl said. "The show is stories about how things came to be, and some of them are based on legends."

The show also delves into Wuhl's own history. For example, when asked how the son of a produce distributor from New Jersey ended up as a stand-up comedian, Wuhl said, "This is the whole point of the show."

Really? When one segment of the performance deals with "the origin of the middle finger?"

"I don't see it as stand-up comedy," Wuhl said. "Is it theater? It's storytelling."

And not all the story is silly, not by a long shot. "There are also very sad parts of the story," he said. "The show gets a little dark."

Jordan Fenster is the entertainment editor for the New Haven Register. He can be reached by e-mail at jfenster@nhregister.com. Follow us on Twitter @NHRegBuzz or Like New Haven Register Buzz on Facebook.