Delaware Theatre Company presents Sam Kissajukian’s 300 Paintings

Stand-up comedy is a difficult, unpredictable performance genre, and so in 2021, after working onstage for a decade, Kissajukian decided to make a change. Some people might take a more stable job or look for work in theater or films. But he simply stopped performing. In a six-month manic episode, he rented an abandoned cake factory and, knowing that artists like Van Gogh struggled with mental illness while creating their masterpieces, he decided—having never done it before—to paint.

From comedian to painter to acclaimed solo artist

During those six months, Kissajukian created more than 300 paintings (hence the show’s title), a daily document of his mental health via visuals. He then had a breakdown, and after five months of depression he sought professional help, something that saved both his career and his life. In 2022, in recovery, he went onstage in Australia to perform again, where he was also offered his first solo exhibition.

Kissajukian has been able to balance studio work and performing, knowing that his comedy now has a job. Humor allows him to admit people into his struggles as he shines a light on the management of his bipolar diagnosis. 300 Paintings is the result of his recovery, and it’s won awards worldwide, lauded at Fringe Festivals as far-flung as Sydney and Edinburgh and garnering theater plaudits wherever he’s performed it, including an award-winning run at New York City’s Vineyard Theatre.

Kissajukian is also serious about his visual art, and DTC is too: the show’s production team includes two designated art handlers. There are artworks in the theater lobby, and the performance is studded with slides of his paintings, some made during his manic episode and some, more resonant and mature, created in recovery. The artworks were originally meant for a one-time-only viewing, but the work is so strong that over the past four years he’s had a dozen solo exhibitions in Australia, Britain, and America.

Chilling, engaging, and quick-witted

300 Paintings proves why this work has been so warmly greeted and highly lauded. It opens as a typical stand-up show, a performer on a black stage with white overhead light, a stool, and hip, edgy pre-show music. Kissajukian never sits on that stool, though; it just holds his glass of water as he paces and roams through his memories, recounting his pathway into, through, and out of his struggles.

At first, he warms up the audience with standard stand-up tropes. He’s witty, wry, and funny recounting his early career, but as the evening progresses, the tone changes. Recounting his six months of mania, Kissajukian pushes the comedy world slightly aside, leaning into the specifics of episodes that culminated in his breakdown. Like the Pied Piper, he leads his followers on a winding journey, but the very fact that he’s standing on the DTC stage means that he stopped short of the precipice and is on safer ground. He’s an expert storyteller, and this is a story worth telling—frank, sometimes chilling, and always engaging, leavened by quick wit and often self-deprecating humor.

An unscripted ending

Near the close of the show, Kissajukian notes that theaters—and audiences—rely on scripts to reach the resolution that ends the play. But he doesn’t like endings and offers another definition: ending is the next beginning. Thus, 300 Paintings continues in a most unusual and unexpected way. The stage show’s visual severity (black box, one person, one stool) is adeptly balanced by its emotional richness, but there’s also a highly effective and luminous surprise ending that makes this a wonderful theatrical evening, one that initiated a passionate rush of emotion from the initially somewhat sedate opening night audience.

When he’s finished speaking onstage, Kissajukian exits into the lobby, where his paintings are on the walls along with a video of his current studio, and he mingles with the crowd, chatting and answering questions. On his website, you can watch a very informative video of the artist speaking about his journey with images of some of his artworks. But there’s no substitute for seeing him live on the DTC stage.

It’s a unique evening, a show without a traditional script exploring a serious subject in an original way. In 300 Paintings, the artist’s focus and directness engages the audience from the start, lifting us up as he navigates the difficult and often puzzling interconnection of mental health and art. Artistic director Warnick believes that “a human being telling a story to a room full of other human beings is, in itself, theater.” And she also believes that “this remarkable show is medicine,” which indeed, it is. Don’t miss it.

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