Theater
Two one-man shows.
Three decades on stage.
San Diego City Heights Performance Annex, Nov 30 – Dec 8, 2023.
2023 — A New Show
Trying to Break A Leg
Patrick tries to create a funny one-person show for an entire year, but no one is laughing. On the verge of giving up, he gets the most unexpected help.
A meta show about the making of one. Patrick spent a year developing a new play — his first — called Man 1, Bank 0. His friends began telling him to stop — that he was embarrassing himself. His mother kept telling him to try.
The Joseph Campbell quote on Patrick’s living-room wall — Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you, where there were only walls — drives the show. As the writer Basil King put it, in the line that gives the play its heart: Be bold and mighty forces will come to your rescue.
The show premiered in San Diego, November 2023.
Live performance, December 2023.
Audience said
Riveting · Wildly funny · Utterly inspiring · Deeply emotional · Soul piercing · Brutally honest · Roller coaster · Gripping · Powerful · Magical · Moving · Goosebumps · Brilliant · Masterful storytelling
San Diego Union-Tribune feature, November 24, 2023.
Press
“Forcing his way onto the stage. Carlsbad artist Patrick Combs’ solo show about his effort to defeat self-doubt and find success in the theater.”
— Michael J. Williams, San Diego Union-Tribune
“Going solo (again). Patrick Combs returns to the stage with his second one-man play, about the making of his first hit production.”
— Samantha Nelson, The Coast News
The Career Show
Man 1, Bank 0
A one-man show built around an unlikely true story — and a junk-mail check the bank should never have cashed.
At thirty-six, Patrick opened Man 1, Bank 0. The premise was already a matter of public record: he had deposited a junk-mail check for $95,093.35 — printed across the front in plain ink, NON-NEGOTIABLE — into an ATM as a joke. The bank cashed it. Six months of David-vs-Goliath followed.
Off-Broadway for a month. Five nights at the Olympia in Dublin. The Soho Theatre in London. HBO’s Aspen Comedy Festival, where it was named the funniest new one-man show in America. Two tours of Ireland. Edinburgh in 2012. Just for Laughs Montreal. Piccolo Spoleto’s Critic’s Choice. Sold-out runs in New Zealand, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. A hundred American mainstages, the Blumenthal in North Carolina among them. Fifty thousand tickets, give or take.
Fifteen years on the road. Four hundred performances. One junk-mail check.
Soho Theatre, London — West End run.
The Olympia Theatre, Dublin — sold-out five-night stand.
From the show — the on-stage phone poll: Should Patrick keep the money?
Financial Times, Life & Arts feature, August 2012.
Press
“This guy’s got star power.”
Variety
“One of the funniest, most fascinating and fastest-moving solo plays to hit New York in many a season.”
BroadwayWorld
“Combs has his storytelling down to an art.”
TimeOut NY
“A master storyteller.”
Irish Times & London Standard
“An invigorating roller-coaster ride presented by a bona fide, ballsy jester. Combs is the underdog — he is us.”
Victoria Times Colonist
“If there were a People’s Choice award, judging by its sellouts, Man 1, Bank 0 would likely win.”
Winnipeg Free Press
What’s Next
The stagecraft now lives in the keynotes.
These shows aren’t currently touring. The timing, the storytelling, the work of holding a room — all of it now lives in Patrick’s corporate keynotes.
