Many comedians, including actor/comedian Peter Fogel, will tell you that the funniest things that make people laugh are the absurd realities that happen to all of us every day. The veteran 62-year-old Fogel from Delray Beach has struck gold with his recollection of his life as a Jewish middle-aged bachelor who has yet to marry in his one man play “Til Death Do Us Part…You First,” to be performed August 12 at 8 pm at ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale.
Comedian Peter Fogel discusses his relationship with his cell phone in “Til Death Do Us Part…You First” on Saturday, August 12 at ArtServe in Ft. Lauderdale.
One has to chuckle not only at the title of the play, but also the synopsis as described by Fogel: “The play features true confessions about marriage, sex and other things that end prematurely,” said Fogel in focusing his attention on the evolution involving his decades old relationship with his long time girlfriend Cheryl and his many less than perfect attributes. Some of Fogel’s confessions of his and Cheryl’s attributes include the following observations from the play:
“The longest relationship I ever had in my life was with T-Mobile.”
“A tropical depression in South Florida takes place when my relatives come to visit me for a long time.”
“Cheryl likes to invest her money where she can see it, hanging up in her closet.”
“When I tried online dating and wrote in my profile that I am a comedian, I had no responses from women. So I changed my profile to a lie that I was a plastic surgeon and had 300 quick responses online from women.”
Comedian Peter discusses his relationship with girlfriend Cheryl in “Til Death Do Us Part…You First” on Saturday, August 12 at ArtServe in Ft. Lauderdale.
Fogel created “Til Death Do Us Part..You First” in 2017, with performances in many venues throughout South Florida and other cities across America over the past six years. The play has received many positive reviews from both audiences and critics. Peter (Fogel) is superb in his comic timing and humor of his story about his life and his relationship with Cheryl. It seems to be similar to two other plays I saw ‘Defending The Caveman’ and ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’,” said Dr. Linda Kaplan when she saw Fogel perform the play in 2018. “Fogel entertains us with anecdotes and characters that hold particular importance to the story, skillfully bringing them to life with his gift for mimicry,” wrote theater critic Samantha Simmonds on the website “no hoartsdistrct.com”.
In 2019, Fogel shortened his play by hiring director Chazz Palminteri, whose semi-autobiographical musical “A Bronx Tale” was performed at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. “Chazz helped me to refine the performance to improve the play and the pace of the show,” said Fogel. “Although not elaborating on specific incidents, Fogel states “I became a comedian to offset some of the negative aspects of coming from a dysfunctional family, and humor was my outlet.”
Headshot of comedian Peter Fogel in “Til Death Do Us Part…You First” on Saturday, August 12 at ArtServe in Ft. Lauderdale.
