By David Sedaris. Adapted by Joe Mantello. An Arts Club production. At the Revue Stage on Wednesday, November 27. Continues until December 21

Toby Berner, the sole performer in this show, is a funny guy. More importantly, he is a relaxed and amiable funny guy, which is exactly what the Arts Club’s sometimes-manic production of The Santaland Diaries needs.

American humorist David Sedaris based his essay “The Santaland Diaries” on his experience of playing an elf in Santa’s village in the Manhattan location of Macy’s department store.

If you listen to Sedaris reading the fictionalized diary on YouTube, you’ll get an idea of the melancholy charm of its original tone. The piece is about unemployment, humiliation, and compassion for kids whose parents treat them horribly. There is also a subtle, simmering sense of rage at the absurdities of Christmas.

In an apparent effort to theatricalize Sedaris’s wryly observational material, director John Murphy tarts it up almost beyond recognition. Sometimes the cues, including a projected map of the maze that leads visitors to Santa’s house, give us basic info—like the location of Vomit Corner. But many cues in Candelario Andrade’s projection design are all jazz hands and no jazz. When Sedaris’s elf character, Crumpet, says that he’s wearing a green costume, which is already right in front of us, do we really need to see the word green pop up on the set? Under Murphy’s direction, Ted Roberts’s lighting is also ridiculously busy: Crumpet’s not working a disco. On the positive side, Roberts has designed a beautifully minimalist set in which the two main pieces look like hollow cubes cut open on the diagonal. But Murphy has Berner and assistant stage manager Lucy Pratt-Johnson heave these cubes around endlessly—and pointlessly—as if they’ve been doomed to perform a Sisyphean seasonal workout.

Last year, when Ryan Beil performed Crumpet, he looked like he was going to sweat to death. On opening night of this year’s mounting, Berner also plunged in at a frenetic pace—but, blessedly, he calmed down as his natural style asserted itself. Berner has an easy way with an ad-lib, and the innate tenderness of his stage persona allows more of the material’s heart to shine through. To be clear: I’m not knocking Beil in this comparison. He is one of the best actors around; my theory is that he just went with Murphy’s showy vision.

Some of the script is still problematic. The Santa who is presented as the best of the lot praises girls for their beauty and boys for their brains. And the repeated use of the word retarded is offensive.

The Santaland Diaries is better this year than it was last. Then again, YouTube is still free.