Midway through a two-minute bit about how he abhors Rosie O’Donnell, veteran Nick Di Paolo gives a quick anti-disclaimer to the packed room listening to him record his latest comedy album: “This ‘ain't According to Jim. This is a comedy club. Buckle up. This is the only...
Blue and black are the favorite shades in comedy, a generally off-color art form. The great masters George Carlin and Richard Pryor, the Da Vinci and Rembrandt of their profession, used painted prose and profanity to hilariously illustrate their points or stories. But swearing...
In this GPS world, Josh Sneed navigates to laughs using the comic equivalent of an old road map. On Unacceptable, his new CD for Comedy Central Records, Sneed follows proven paths to amusing audiences: tease the family (including, God forbid, his grandpa, a former Southern...
“The more people know about you, the more they can use against you.” – Mike Birbiglia’s dad. When he released his third stand-up comedy album, My Secret Public Journal Live in September of last year, any doubt as to whether Mike Birbiglia was on his way to becoming one...
On Demetri Martin’s 2006 album, These Are Jokes, there’s a meandering track called “One Story,” which contains a bit about a friend of Martin's who thinks that “a lot of [his] joke premises are contrived and hard to believe.” Like much of Martin’s material, it’s...
From the look of things, Tom McCaffrey is just another weed freak with a burgers-and-fries body, the sort of inert stoner who considers pushing his luck a strenuous cardio workout. Maybe this is why Mom told us never to judge a comic by his CD cover…or something like...
“That’s a retarded joke, I know,” Mitch Hedberg proclaims after he tells a joke wherein his vodka-soaked Hoover is so drunk it can’t vacuum in a straight line. The self-effacing Hedberg uses the phrase and slight variations thereof throughout the nearly 40 minutes of...
Even the most casual fan of stand-up comedy would agree that one of the main ingredients of a successful act is likability. Regardless of the comic’s tone, creativity, edginess or lack thereof, there’s got to be something that you like about that guy or woman onstage. So in...
A hero of American dysfunction, comedian Christopher Titus has given broken families and their broken dreams an artistic voice in a mass appeal way for nearly a decade. To those not completely familiar with his rather colorful upbringing, here’s the beginning: Titus was...
