His parents and teachers told him that he had a behavior problem, that he didn`t take things seriously and wouldn`t amount to anything. Wrong!
Precisely because playwright Jim Geoghan has a wonderful sense of humor, plus a keen understanding of the human condition, his plays touch the heart and funnybone. And, yes, he is a successful playwright, after spending nine years as a standup comic.
His new play, ”Triple Exposure,” opened its world premiere in previews at Wisdom Bridge Theatre on Nov. 19, and will continue until Jan. 1. The plot concerns a love affair between a blind man and a plain woman who reads to him.
His earlier play, ”Only Kidding,” had its Midwest premiere last year at Wisdom Bridge. After a successful two-month run, it has played many regional theaters across the country. The play examines the life of standup comedians, something the 6-foot-4 playwright knows intimately.
A native of the Bronx, Geoghan (pronounced GAY-gun) headed for New York`s Improv Comedy Club after graduating from college. There he discovered ”100 other guys just like me. So I figured I had been hanging out with the wrong people,” he recalled, while on a recent visit to Chicago.
”It was a revelation to find people who did this for a living.” An Irish Catholic, he teamed up with Marc Fine, a Jewish comic. Some of the regulars at the Improv at the time (1972-73) were Richard Lewis, Elaine Boosler, David Brenner, Jimmie Walker and Jay Leno.
During this period, Geoghan was spending time as a volunteer reader for the blind at The Lighthouse in New York. ”The indoctrination speech for the readers was given by a blind person, who reminded us that blind people are like anyone else,” he recalled.
”Everyone listened with a knowing smirk, not really hearing what the person was saying. We`re thinking, `Yes, you`re so intuitive, knowing, sensitive and kind, and your other senses are sharper.` Our myths were in place.
”For the next two years I read to several blind people, and some were pretty awful. One guy I used to read to had a seeing-eye dog. If I didn`t read fast enough, his dog would growl at me.”
Reading to a schoolteacher in New Jersey, who was clearly prejudiced against Latinos, riled Geoghan. ”He always insisted I give (a student named) Julio an `F` on tests. I felt so bad for the kid, I`d fill in answers for him,” Geoghan admitted.
”I`d say, `He got the True-False right!` A few times I managed to give Julio a `D,` which I felt was a personal triumph in overcoming this guy`s extreme prejudice.”
After nine years, Geoghan moved to Los Angeles with his wife, actress Ann Geoghan, abandoning nightclubs to write for television. After attending a festival of one-act plays, Ann told him, ”You could do that.”
”The next day I started to write a one-act play, then another,” Geoghan said. ”I joined a playwrights group where we workshopped our pieces. It was a terrific learning experience.”
He eventually became a producer on ”Silver Spoons,” ”The Garry Shandling Show,” ”Amen” and ”Family Matters.”
But as a playwright, Geoghan wanted to write something that worked against the stereotype of blind people. ”The main character in `Triple Exposure` is a bitter man. The play deals with what it takes to turn that kind of personality around.
”It`s filled with camera and picture-taking metaphors for this blind man, who used to take pictures. I have a theory that I put forth in this play: When you fall in love with someone, there is usually a moment when you took an emotional snapshot of that person, and remember them forever that way.”
