MANSFIELD, Ohio – “Breaking Bad” is breaking into Mansfield in a unique way.
As the television show’s fans might note, Heisenberg is coming to The Renaissance, yo.
The chemist-turned-meth cook Walter White will be joined by Jesse Pinkman, Saul Goodman, Skylar White, Hank Schrader, Walter White Jr., Mike Ehrmantraut and the rest of the memorable cast from the AMC show “Breaking Bad.” But here’s the catch – only one man will take the Renaissance stage on Oct. 9.
That one man is Miles Allen, the talented impressionist behind the “One Man Breaking Bad: The Unauthorized Parody” comedy show currently making its way around the globe.
“I think ‘Breaking Bad’ is truly the greatest television show of all time,” Allen said. “I think my show could even be a testament to that — that I’m able to make a career spoofing the show, that’s how much the show resonated on a cultural level.”
Allen’s lucrative “Breaking Bad” career first came from a video stunt where he was portrayed as a homeless man with a knack for impressions. Currently the video has more than 1.5 million views.
Allen said he was tinkering with impressions of characters from the show when a friend suggested creating a video.
“That video went viral, and then a month later I was contacted by a producer from Australia who said, ‘I saw the video, glad to see you’re not homeless,’” Allen said. “It was literally the right people and the right circumstances happening around me.”
The producer saw it and pitched the idea to Allen for a one-man “Breaking Bad” show, and flew him to Australia. The performance was a hit, leading to sell-out runs at comedy festivals in Melbourne and Edinburgh. To date, Allen has performed his one-man show more than 130 times.
“I’m pretty much living and breathing it,” Miles said. “An actor can never complain about work that lasts longer than a month.”
Allen’s talent for impressions came long before the first episode of “Breaking Bad.” He remembers from a young age recording his comedy shows using at least 20 different voices and characters.
“It actually came out of a dark place in my life, in middle school I was really heavily bullied and didn’t have any friends, so I made up my own and started doing impressions as kind of an outlet, and I found I had a knack for them,” he said. “I started doing SpongeBob SquarePants impressions for my peers on the school bus, and I then became known as the funny guy, which is cool and helped build a new identity for me.”
This led Allen to study acting in college, and eventually move out to Los Angeles. Then Vince Gilligan’s show about a mild-mannered family man’s transformation into a kingpin of the drug trade premiered in January 2008, unknowingly influencing Allen’s life forever.
“I think it explores a very morally pertinent question every person experiences in their life, if a morally compromising decision is based on good intentions, is it justified?” Allen said. “You watch your protagonist become someone awful and you sympathize with him – I don’t think that’s ever been done on television before.”
Despite the original show’s dark undertones, Allen’s one-man show with back-to-back impersonations breaks all six seasons down into one parody performance. Including all the main characters, Allen performs more than 40 different impressions within his show, complete with costumes, wigs and blue meth.
“I wanted the show to be a comedic, nostalgic trip through ‘Breaking Bad,’” Allen said. “With such an intense show, the audience wants moments of relief to laugh, even though it is very serious there are funny quirks and mannerisms with the characters so it lends itself to the audience needing to laugh at moments because it’s so intense.
“I took that concept of relief and just amplified it throughout the show and hammed up a lot of bits.”
Allen cautions that the show does contain some mature content and might not be suitable for children under the age of 15 – including Jesse Pinkman’s affinity for profanity.
“Depending on how I feel that day I do say it a lot,” said Allen with a laugh. “It’s obviously a staple of the character Jesse, who actually narrates the show, so there’s going to be a lot …”
“One Man Breaking Bad: The Unauthorized Parody” has made waves in the “Breaking Bad” community, even catching the attention of actor Bob Odenkirk, who played Saul Goodman on the show.
“He knows about the show and was in contact with my manager and talked about coming to see it sometime,” Allen said. “Which would be amazing, Bob has a background in comedy so it would be so cool to see it sometime.
“A dream of mine would be performing it for the cast and crew, it’s pretty much a thank-you letter to them for giving us such an amazing show.”
But Allen gets most of his joy from performing and meeting his fellow “Breaking Bad-dicts” around the country and the world.
“We’ll start talking about our favorite episodes or people will come dressed up. Two ladies even gave me blue rock candy,” Allen said. “It’s been a real pleasure, without them I wouldn’t have the show and they’re all so supportive, sitting and reliving the greatest TV show of all time.”
Tickets are on sale for “One Man Breaking Bad: The Unauthorized Parody” which begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 9. Tickets can be purchased at the Renaissance Box Office by calling (419) 522-2726 or visiting MansfieldTickets.com.
