It's Friday night and you're in a local bar with some friends.  Suddenly, a biker and geeky-looking guy get into an argument near your table.  It looks like they're going to come to blows and you wonder if you should hide under the table and call the police when you realize you've just been had.  The entire fight was an 10-minute act.

Welcome to "Close Shave."

Explains David Hoffman, the producer of "Close Shave," which is put on by his production company, Cafe Theatre, "I like the 10-minute play format.  I can do a lot more interesting work for the actors.  You want something that short to get the audience involved.  They can't easily get drawn into a three-hour tragedy.  But this leaves the playwrights a lot of room to be creative.  It's real ensemble theater."

"The actors do two or three roles each," continued Hoffman.  "The actors come directly from Montclair State.  Some of them come from Luna Stage.  I've had about 10 years of experience putting these plays together."

Hoffman is no stranger to the stage, or the area.  Born in Newark, he grew up in Mountainside, although he now lives in Summit.  A math teacher at Middlesex High School, Hoffman has always had a love for theater, stemming back to when he used to do shows with 12 Miles West when they worked out of Tierney's Tavern on Valley Road in Montclair, where "Close Shave" is now being presented.  They had called these shows Tierney's Nights, but when 12 Miles West moved next door to the tavern, it became known as Theatre Nights. "Close Shave" is the next step.

"I hadn't done theater in about 10 years and, one day, I just stopped by Tierney1s Tavern and asked if they'be interested and they were."

"The reason I call it 'Close Shave' is because all of the pieces I'm putting together have an element of a close shave," said the producer.

The name is also inspired by a famous shaving cream song made famous by Dr. Demento, and it was written by Joel Samberg's grandfather, Benny Bell.  The music Hoffman is using before, during and after are his grandfather's vaudevillian songs.

Samberg has even more involvement than just serving as publicity manager for Cafe Theatre.  "Joel is acting in one of the pieces.  He plays a man who's going to commit suicide because the Yankees have lost the pennant."

The setting of "Close Shave" is another reason it is so different from most contemporary pieces of art.  The action occurs all around the audience, so they never know when something might transpire that is, in fact, one of the eight comedies being presented.

To illustrate the "360 degrees of theater" that will be presented, Hoffman set the scene.  "At 7:30 p.m., while people are enjoying their drinks, a biker guy and a geek start having a fight at the bar and they realize it's a part of the play and it goes around for eight minutes.  Then a guy's tied to a chair because his wife read about this way to stop smoking in Reader's Digest.

"So the plays are happening all around people.  We use the bar itself as a set  We use the tables as a set.  We use the entire room as a set.  It's a takeoff that 'all the world's a stage.'"

These pieces are originals that are not written by the producer.  None are published, and most are from playwrights from New York, New Jersey or anywhere.

"The 10-minute play format is very appealing for a few reasons," said Hoffman.  "Quite often, you can go through an entire emotional journey in just 10 minues.  It's like a commercial the conveys emotional completeness in 30 seconds.

Hoffman admits that this is a great place for actors to test their mettle, and he sees many of them using using this show as a jumping off to New York.  Part of the mystique is the setting and that the show could just as easily be happening at any local bar or restaurant on any given night.  This gives it a feeling of immediacy that draws the audience in.

"I'm using stage light to highlight the areas where the acting is taking place.  If its's happening right in your space, it's very intimate.  By eliminating the theatrical conventions, you create a pure theatrical experience."

Hoffman will be bringing "Close Shave" to Tierney's Tavern on the evenings of Friday, Saturday, April 28 and 29, and May 5, 6, 12 and 13.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students with identification.

Associate Editor Davd Jablonski can be reached at 908-686-7700, ext.124, or djablonski@thelocalsource.com.