‘ta-da!’ review: A heartfelt romp full of magic and mayhem

The promo materials for Josh Sharp’s solo show “ta-da!,” a twisted, spicy comic romp now playing at the Greenwich House Theater, tout his “Herculean feat” memorizing 2,000 PowerPoint slides. Indeed, Sharp himself playfully harps on this achievement, as the slides are projected in rapid succession onto the stage backdrop.

“I’ve had to memorize that shit. The script is 180 pages long for an 80-minute show,” he crows, displaying the final page from the Google Docs script as proof. “I’ve got to do a slide every 2.4 seconds.”

Impressive as this stunt is, the real triumph is his knack for storytelling, which tugs on the heartstrings as it tickles the funny bone. The thirtysomething, self-described “gay comedian” recounts getting heckled while performing magic tricks at other kids’ birthday parties, punctuated with “ta-da!” “Pubescent life is a waking Kafkaesque nightmare and your sorrow knows no bounds,” he laments.

Sharp also recalls his Southern gentleman father belting out “Rolling in the Deep” at an Adele concert, his mother’s battle with ovarian cancer, and a brush with death on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. The overarching theme, however, is his bumpy coming out journey. He came out at age 22, which he considers quite late, due to being raised in the religious rural South.

The PowerPoint slides display, in black and white, every word of his manic monologue (he deftly uses a remote clicker). Except when they don’t. At strategic moments, the words onscreen reveal unspoken subtext, which can be caustic or hilarious or both. For example, the word “(ta-da)” intermittently appears as a code word for “gay.”

Occasionally, Sharp reveals the number of slides he has covered so far, to keep us on pace. The type is arranged in variegated patterns underscoring the emotion behind the statement. On one slide, the word “hi” is elongated into “hiiiiiiiiiii…” until it fills up the entire screen. The austere scenic design is by Meredith Ries, lighting is by Cha See, and the co-video design is by Stivo Arnoczy.

Like any good coming out story, Sharp veers into the steamy, borderline squirmy topic of sex. He recalls the time he got a happy ending “on accident” at a men’s spa in Chelsea, and shares a bunch of other freaky stories that some theatergoers may feel cross the line into cringe.

The New York-based comedian, actor, and writer, who created and starred in the movie “Dicks: The Musical,” earned his comic chops with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. He’s got the stage presence and demeanor of a stand-up comedian who sometimes pushes the limits of likability, though he believes his brand of performance is superior.

“Stand ups can f–k up and recover and you’d never know,” he says. “Because I’m locked into all this bullshit, you will definitely know when I f–k up.” The next set of slides illustrate just how awry things can go.

The intimate Greenwich House Theater Off Broadway is an ideal fit for the material. If the rollicking, madcap pace of this show recalls another crowd-pleaser comedy that originated in the Village and whose title ends in an exclamation point (of course I’m referring to “Oh, Mary!”), that’s because they share the same director, Sam Pinkleton. He won the 2025 Tony Award for directing that massive hit after it transferred to Broadway.

Living up to its title, the show features a couple of magic tricks of the “pick a card, any card” variety. And that means audience participation. He even coaxes the entire house into repeating a bawdy phrase, that he claims is beautifully poetic, that might be the most ridiculously crass set of words ever to escape my lips in a public place. And it felt exhilarating.

“ta-da!” examines life’s absurdities, and how we choose to spend our days when we know our time on earth is limited. It asks us to consider, if we cheat death and are granted extra time, what would we do with it? Like the best comedians, Sharp’s material is clever, insightful, self-deprecating, and just a little bitchy. His delivery and timing are both uproariously spot-on. Just don’t call it stand up.