SEATTLE – Josh Kornbluth made a surprising discovery when he failed to file his income tax return one year.
Nothing happened.
No letter from the Internal Revenue Service. No phone call. Nothing.
So he bagged it the next year, and the next. Seven years worth of no tax returns, to be exact.
But taxes, it turns out, are certain. So we learn in “Love &Taxes,” Kornbluth’s one-man show that he wrote and is performing at Intiman Theatre under the direction of David Dower.
When the IRS finally came calling, Kornbluth had run up a bill – including money owed to the state of California and a snarky tax lawyer named Mo – of $80,000.
How he got into this taxing mess, and how it ended up transforming his life, is the subject of Kornbluth’s engaging and funny monologue.
Kornbluth is a master storyteller, poking into issues – such as taxes, and love, and growing up and civic responsibility, in this case – with self-deprecating humor and a barbed wit.
“Red Diaper Baby” is his acclaimed monologue on growing up the son of Communist parents; “Haiku Tunnel,” which was made into a movie, recounts his adventures working as an office temp.
Kornbluth is a short, solidly built man with a fringe of dark hair ringing his balding head. He’s funny and smart and likeable, so even when his story meanders, you’re willing to go along because he’s such good company.
He’s also a very physical actor, with a Homer Simpson-like scream when something really scary happens. He needs stage presence to command Intiman’s spare set, which includes a chair, a stool and a table that holds a laptop and a copy of the U.S. tax code, two phone book-thick volumes.
Video images on a background screen offer visual cues, like a printout of his whopping tax bill.
The best part of his story is how he got himself into this tax jam, and the boneheaded things he did – like sign his name wherever a Post-it note said “sign here” – and didn’t do – like read the fine print.
To say what happens with the IRS is to give away too much, but the love of a good woman, a teacher named Sara, figures prominently in his story.
And this: Taxes, he concludes, pay for good things, like schools and libraries, and public transportation and other services that enrich us all.
“Love &Taxes”: Through Oct. 2 at Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center. Tickets, $27-$46, 206-269-1900, www.intiman.org.
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