Palisadian Playwright Debuts ‘Mistakes Were Made’

By Michael Aushenker | Contributing Writer

Three old writers sitting around Canter’s Deli reflect on bad relationship and career moves and opportunities lost.

That is the simple premise behind the comedy “Mistakes Were Made,” the 10th play by former television writer and longtime Pacific Palisades resident Jerry Mayer, now running at Santa Monica Playhouse.

Directed by Chris DeCarlo with his usual aplomb for small-scale comedy, “Mistakes Were Made” showcases six talented actors bringing Mayer’s wonderfully crotchety comedy to life.

Using a meal at famed Fairfax Avenue Jewish delicatessen Canter’s as a device, “Mistakes” revolves around a trio of three aging television creators, Jeff Cohen (Gregg Berger) and Richard Turner (Paul Linke), former producers of the fictional “Made in Heaven” series, and Mel Friemdan (Kyle T. Heffner), a writer whom Jeff had hired to work on their show.

As they take inventory on their long lives, the Canter’s get-together becomes the scene where each character airs out and admits his regrets, which range from relationship peccadillos to the broken relationship T

urner wants to repair with his son, Dick, Jr., and are all presented via flashback with actors Matt Fowler, Rachel Galper and Christine Joelle playing the younger roles.

Much of the play’s humor is built around the dynamics of the main trio—the two Jewish guys, Jeff and Mel, and non-Jewish Richard. Along the way, there are nostalgic references to George Gershwin, the Three Stooges and “The Love Boat”; the latter alluding to a real-life missed opportunity when the playwright once was offered to serve as an executive producer on the long-running ABC hit show, which Mayer had turned down because he found the TV movie pilot too corny.

Affably defiant, “Mistakes Were Made” (and playwright Mayer) wants to cut through the artifice that is killing American comedy these days—mainly political correctness—and hit some kind of truth about the human condition and American culture. Sometimes this works but there are also a few cringe-worthy moments.

Despite making a point about casually racist humor of several generations back, a recall of a date taking place in a Chinese restaurant would still make an attendees uncomfortable. Likewise, several punchlines lean too hard on bad puns with the word “Jew.”

However, Mayer is not so much clueless or tone-deaf as bristling to challenge ways both old and new. Overall, he is successful—such as when he sends up the lunacy of the tech age we live in with a bunch of gags centered around an iPhone—and, in a few instances, the outcome results in some pretty forced puns.

The bulk of the play is more character-driven, with Linke and Heffner delivering deliciously comedic performances and Berger’s Jeff bringing depth to his cipher role as avatar for the playwright. Fowler channels the vulnerable everymen of Steve Carell and Ed Helms, while Galper and Joelle expertly round out the six-person cast as they perform their various turns as multiple characters.

Mayer, of course, cut his teeth writing episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “M.A.S.H.” back in the 1970s, and he can still devise some great one-liners.

“No divorce, that would mean starting from scratch … with half the dough!” Mel quips late in the production.

At 88, Mayer continues to create observational content mixing nostalgic riffing with a skewering of contemporary trends that delights and puts a smile on an attendee’s face. Trafficking heavily in the Jewish-and-W.A.S.P. jokes landscape once dominated by Neil Simon, there is a comfort-food enjoyment to this genre of staged Jewish-American comedy.

While his latest may not be one of the strongest of his plays (“Two Across” and “Aspirin & Elephants” are among Mayer’s best), “Mistakes” does deliver the spirited and humorous quasi-autobiographical grist we’ve come to expect from Mayer’s work.

Make no mistake, Santa Monica Playhouse is lucky to have a deft Palisadian writer such as Mayer applying his craft on a regular basis to its stage. “Mistakes Were Made” is well worth the drive down Chautauqua.