Growing up in Las Vegas, Baron Vaughn loved comedy. His mother and grandmother raised him through a tumultuous childhood, and his father was out of the picture. Comedians on TV like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor became Vaughn’s father figures. He wanted to be like them, so he pursued the first o pportunity he found to go on stage and talk: acting. While he was studying theater at Boston University, a friend suggested he try standup comedy. Twenty-five years later, with a prolific and multidisciplinary career ranging from acting on shows like “Grace and Frankie” and “Mystery Science Theater 3000” to writing and directing credits with Comedy Central, Blavity and Funny or Die, Vaughn feels most at home within a Venn diagram of standup and theater.  His latest project, “Baron Vaughn: Cycle Breaker,” a one-man show about trauma and parenting, caps off a two-year artist residency at Geva Theatre. It will premiere on the Fielding Stage from April 28 through June 7. Initially, Vaughn resisted the idea of writing a solo show. His residency included a commission to create a new artistic piece, left to the artist’s discretion. As part of his residency, Vaughn served on the curation team for the 2023-25 seasons. Most of the shows produced at Geva are written by a playwright for other actors to perform. Vaughn assumed that’s what his show would be, too. A promotional photo for “The Work Out Room.” PHOTO BY KIM NEWMONEY In the meantime, comedy was calling.  Strong standup routines don’t spontaneously generate out of thin air (though a good one may feel that way). Comedians need to try, and retry, material on a live audience to see if it, well, works out. During his time at Geva, Vaughn founded and curated “The Work Out Room,” a work-in-progress comedy series inspired by the Edinburgh Festival’s template for UK comedians. To work out “The Work Out Room,” Vaughn developed a routine for the inaugural week, and his jokes kept returning to the same topic — family.  Now that his sons are 6 and 8 years old, he often thinks about how he didn’t have a father at their age, and how his mother and grandmother parented him in ways he doesn’t always want to emulate.  “Those were the themes that started to come up, over and over again,” Vaughn said. “My childhood and my relationship with my mother next to my relationship with my children.”  He added it felt like he was throwing mud at the wall — but for the audience, something both hilarious and vulnerable was forming.  “We all realized, ‘oh my god, that’s your show. That’s what you’ve got to write towards,’” said Geva dramaturg Fiona Kyle. Many people ask themselves if they want to have kids, but Vaughn thinks there’s a second, more important question they should be asking: “Do I want to do the most insane shadow work I’ve ever done in my life?” Parenting forces you to see yourself in a new light, he said. “Everything that you do becomes a reflection of everything that has happened to you,” Vaughn said. “How you act and how you see yourself and all these things affect this other person, this child.”  Writing “Cycle Breaker”— digging into his personal experiences to create a show that would both entertain and move audiences — has been another type of shadow work. It’s been aided by the creative team at Geva, including Kyle and director Evren Odcikin, who Vaughn said have been crucial to the piece’s growth.  Vaughn in rehearsal. PHOTO BY ROBERTO FELIPE LAGARES For Vaughn, the key was finding the emotions that will resonate with people who didn’t grow up with the traumas he experienced, but given the uncertainty of the world, many people can still relate to feeling overwhelmed and confused.  That’s where the comedy lies. “The events themselves? No, that’s not funny. What’s funny is that we’re all scared, and we all don’t know what to do,” Vaughn said. “It’s OK to not know. It’s OK to be uncertain and unsure.”  Kyle added the piece also offers a beautiful portrayal of Black masculinity and fatherhood.  “In a time when we’re so obsessed with the male loneliness epidemic and men behaving badly, it’s nice to see men trying to break cycles,” she said. “He’s saying just because you’ve had hardships doesn’t mean you can’t show up with softness for the people in your life.” Katherine Varga is a Rochester-based writer and arts educator. On an ideal day, you’ll find her biking to a library or theater. The post Following a two-year artist residency, Baron Vaughn’s newest show premieres at Geva Theatre appeared first on CITY Magazine. Arts. Music. Culture.. ...read more read less