Pat Hazell is in a great position to celebrate pop culture. He was born in the last rumble of the baby boom, in the middle of six children, so his Nebraska childhood overlapped both boomers' (Howdy Doody, Lawn Darts, Spam) and Gen Xers' (Sesame Street, Big Wheels, Pop Rocks).

That celebration is "The Wonder Bread Years," opening tonight at City Theatre. It's a one-man performance in the tradition of "Defending the Caveman" and "Late-Nite Catechism," complete with audience interaction and a slide show.

Remember slide shows and the family road trips they immortalized? Show and Tell? The worst Halloween costume? Actor John Mueller will be your "sherpa guide into an attic full of memories," as Hazell put it.

"The nature of this show is that it's very contagious," Hazell explained. "Anyone who's a watcher of 'Seinfeld' or 'Friends' understands the power of reminiscing and pop culture and finding those common denominators." Hazell should know; he was one of the original writers for "Seinfeld."

But how do you serve up memories specific enough to resonate but general enough to have a wide appeal?

"We don't mention ages; we don't mention where we grew up" -- Omaha in Hazell's case, Wichita in Mueller's -- "because we're trying to get audiences to see a reflection in their own life.

"People who had milk money that was a nickel vs. 10 cents vs. a quarter ... it's not about how much the milk was, it's just that you had to carry milk money."

Hazell started out as a children's magician and self-taught juggler. He wasn't very good.

"My act didn't work so well, so I started doing comedy as a way of recovering. People began to think, 'Oh the act's supposed to be bad so the jokes will be funny.' But when [Jerry] Seinfeld saw it, he said, 'You're a great joke writer; why don't you get rid of the bad parts?' "

Hazell moved to Los Angeles to do standup, working his way up to "The Tonight Show." He cowrote a play called "Bunk Bed Brothers," a gift that kept on giving; that script helped him get the job on "Seinfeld." Also, "While we were sorting for toys and games and props, I started to realize how much I liked that stuff." And that was before eBay, the "all-time national garage sale."

Hazell developed "The Wonder Bread Years" about 15 years ago as an hourlong PBS special. He performed it in theaters himself, then began to put other actors in it.

But he doesn't just hand them a script. He customizes the show for each actor, using the actor's own childhood memories.

"I had been writing stories and jokes about my life," Hazell said, "and I stole stacks of slides from my parents' basement. I do the same with these actors ... I go through their slides, and I say, 'Tell me about this trip to the Four Corners,' and they start talking to me, and I say, 'You know what? I had the same experience. Let's use this picture in the slide show, and let's use this story.

"We might give it some creative twist, but for the most part, you're seeing the person in the picture, doing what they did."

Images are time machines, but so are objects.

"The little wax bottles from Halloween or the grandpa coin purse or whatever: They're little things from junk drawers all over America. But they're triggers, and that's the idea here: We'll get it started and hopefully you'll take it home with you." Or on the road in your Country Squire station wagon.

"We do a routine ... about trying to get truckers to honk their horns from the way-back."

But will today's kids have such fond memories? Hazell has two children under 10.

"It's hard to believe that that would be possible. Even just this most recent road trip, they're interested in their video game or watching the DVD; they're not looking out the window and counting cows. My generation, there was a lot of outdoor play -- kick the can or hide and seek -- and kids are really into these individual games, and Xboxes ... it's really centered around yourself."

So what can former can-kickers expect from this "one-man comic event"?

"It's not a play," Hazell said emphatically. It's more of a "salute to Americana -- it's storytelling, and it's standup, and there's a little bit of pathos.

"The underlying theme is our sense of wonder, how we lost it -- and how we can get it back."