The moment Chef Michael Denardi (former Colbert Report writer Peter Grosz) fake-karate kicks his way onto the stage, promising that you are going to become “the version of yourself that you always wanted to be,” we immediately know two things: He is a hot, bubbly mess, and before the show is over, we are going to watch him fall apart like an undercooked Bundt cake. Sporting a crustache and a Rambo-style bandanna, the aggressively vigorous Denardi wants to be a celebrity chef the way a methhead wants crank. We’re nominally in for a live cooking demonstration, but Denardi burns time dishing out life lessons (“Don’t adapt!” “Take everything personally!”), sharing tales of all the enemies he’s made, and inventing cronut-like recipes based on questionable portmanteaus (guaclava, muffnuts). And watch out, y’all—that’s a real knife he’s holding. The self-help guru who can’t help himself is a musty trope, but Grosz breathes new life into it through sheer manic will.—Jenna Scherer
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Discounted tickets are availble through Time Out Offers until September 27, 2013.