Strange Travel Suggestions

All of us dream of abandoning the daily doldrums of our lives and traipsing across the globe. Roaming the golden Grecian hillsides? Dog sledding through frozen Alaskan tundra? One-on-one rendezvous with the Dalai Lama? Check, check, and CHECK. Book me a flight and SIGN ME UP.

Jeff Greenwald's travel monologues, "Strange Travel Suggestions," transport you to the places of our escapist fantasies and pass on thoughtful anecdotes on travel, friendship, and that age old "Ugly American stereotype."

The goal of Greenwald's production is to immerse the audience in his colorful and humorous travel tales. He imagines "Strange Travel Suggestions" as a sort of trip for the whole theater.

Periodically, to transition from one story to another and bolster the play's inspirational feel, Greenwald invites audience members on stage to chat and spin his Wheel of Fortune: Travel Edition. Each mark on the wheel corresponds to a different story in Greenwald's index. Every night there is a different performance. Just like the experience of traveling itself, you never know what you are going to get.

Greenwald's stories leave out the nitty-gritty and exhausting parts of traveling and instead showcase the more romantic and exciting moments. Once upon a time, I believed my destiny was to roam the world armed only with journalistic fervor and a directional sense that would make Marco Polo jealous. Maybe it was my highly accurate Middle School career aptitude test or a strangely ominous fortune cookie reading: "Travel the world, before it's too late."

But it takes more than a love of seeing the sights and resilience to airline food to be a successful travel writer and performer. I, for instance, gave up my dreams early on when I learned that I not only have about the same directional sense of those preteens loudly playing Marco Polo in local swimming pool, but also consistently fumble through any story or situation I try to tell an audience.

What makes Greenwald's monologues special is the passion and genuine excitement in which he delivers them. Often times, his retellings are so vivid and beautiful that it is surprising to learn that some of these events took place up to twenty years ago. Closing his eyes and clenching his fists, he reminisces on the everlasting beauty of the Delphic mountainside and the glistening sunshine on the Alaskan snow.

Greenwald is an excellent storyteller. The recounting of his dog sledding escapade was so thrilling that I was halfway to ordering "Balto" on my iPhone's Netflix App during the performance. His adventures, though undeniably escapist and chimerical, also tap into deeper themes. The three stories he shared gave the audience a window into very different points in Greenwald's life.

Going abroad can often be a time of deep reflection and clarity. The playwright colors his chronicles with his own personal issues at the time of the action. For example, a trip to the oracle at Delphi and a chance meeting with a female traveler sets him on his path as a writer and his fateful meeting with the Dalai Lama is a lesson in humility and faith.

Greenwald's monologues and skills as a storyteller are so strong that when he returns from his memories of travels past, the intervening audience participation sections feel forced and unnecessary. The wheel gimmick and Greenwald's discussion of tarot don't detract anything from the performance, but come off a little hokey and outdated.

His conversations with volunteers about their recent trips only remind you how difficult it is to tell a travel story and pale in comparison to the main event. Nevertheless, there is a reason "Strange Travel Suggestions" keeps drawing audiences year after year.

Greenwald's storytelling talents, however subtle and casual, are strong. Once the lights come up, you are itching to concoct a believable story or highly contagious one-week illness to ditch work, pack your bags, and discover who you are when you travel.