Review: 'Charlie (Brown) Black' yokes humor and hurt in Minneapolis show

Mikell Sapp waltzes onstage at Pillsbury House Theatre in a sea of applause — the hoots from the audience are augmented by a prerecorded track. It's a rock star intro and one that speaks to his ambition and sense of humor.

"You all don't think I'm Kevin Hart, do you?" he says.

It's the opening of his autobiographical solo show "Charlie (Brown) Black," in which he uses stand-up comedy aesthetics and riffs on the Charlie Brown comic strip to give us a peek into his hurts, joys and longings.

In the 90-minute show, which opened Saturday under the direction of Talvin Wilks, Sapp sketches his journey from Phenix City, Ala., a small, insular community where he was much beloved and where he could hear the encouraging voice of his mother in his head, to his independent life in Minneapolis, an indifferent big city where he has to figure out how to take public transportation.

Here are six interesting and sometimes surprising takeaways from "Charlie Black."

1. He has range. Sapp, who once depicted a young man dealing with his father's terminal illness in "Broke-ology" — the show that brought him to the Twin Cities in 2011 — has excellent comic timing. Standing behind the mic, he uses gesture, delivery, dramatic pauses and a theatrical arsenal to grab the audience and make us care. There are tears, his and ours, in his delivery of this up-from-Down-South story.

2. He's deeply honest and vulnerable. Sapp is a dark-skinned Black male of modest height and stature. As he explains in the show, he negotiates a world where the public and casting directors alike make assumptions about his personality and his abilities based solely on appearance. He tells an anecdote about wearing braids, and the images that flash across the screen behind him include rappers and gangsters. He's neither of those things. And when he pretends to be for a potential lover seeking a bad boy, he is quickly found out.

3. His solo act goes beyond the usual format. "Charlie (Brown) Black" is not polished. Sapp consults his script on the music stand. Also, he tells his truth fearlessly. The laughter in the show — and there's plenty of it — is a salve for deep wounds.

4. He has a particularly heartbreaking sequence on the word "ugly," which was once lobbed at him in childhood. In a bit of poignant poetry, he likens the insult to a passenger at the back of a bus who never gets off.

5. He brings a calling card onstage that's heavier than most: a green-hued glass pyramid that looks like a professional sports trophy. It's the Ivey Award for emerging artist, which Sapp won in 2015, is an unusual show-and-tell. But, hey, it's validation for a country boy from Alabama.

6. He's imaginative and prone to fancies. The award didn't lead to the things he had hoped for — artistic directors calling and offering roles, professional sports teams such as the Vikings and Timberwolves inviting him to be a guest in their VIP boxes. Every time there's a high for Sapp, he gets shaken back to reality. But that's part of what makes "Charlie (Brown) Black" universal. It's a wry, moving coming-of-age tale.

'Charlie (Brown) Black'
Who: Written and performed by Mikell Sapp. Directed by Talvin Wilks.
Where: Pillsbury House Theatre, 3501 Chicago Av. S., Mpls.
When: 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 5:30 p.m. Sun. Ends June 12.
Tickets: Pay-what-you-wish above $5. 612-825-0459 or pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org.
Protocol: Masks required.