The Definitive Guide to Comedy
T.J. Miller put out two comedy projects of more than an hour each under his name in 2011, a CD (“The Extended Play EP”) and a DVD (“No Real Reason”). But you only need to buy one. The 41-track CD is a joke on music. Intended to be a meta …
Unlike any comedy DVD you’ve seen before, Doug Stanhope opens his 2011 release, “Oslo – Burning the Bridge to Nowhere,” with a taped introductory message, sitting behind a desk or table with a pint of beer, and pulling back the curtain on the “magic” of comedy specials for a few minutes, revealing …
Tig Notaro’s “Good One” wound up on multiple best-of lists in 2011. The CD certainly opens with a bang, as Notaro is brought onstage by good friend Sarah Silverman (how many stand-up comedians can match that starpower in an introduction?), and in less than a minute, Notaro has opened with …
Patton Oswalt has reached that level of success where he’s compelled to say up top, “Nothing I’m going to say will live up to that!” to lessen the audience’s expectations. Which doesn’t matter because the opening applause is but one of many breaks during his latest hourlong set, “Finest Hour,” out …
Can you separate the Jim Norton you hear on Opie & Anthony’s radio show from the Jim Norton you see on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show from the Jim Norton you may have read about in either of his best-selling books of essays? Of course. In “Despicable,” Norton’s first CD in …
Jen Kirkman is the funniest person in Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea Lately circle of comedian friends. By a mile. And then some. Kirkman proves that once again (or if you’re not familiar with her or the E! programming, for the first time) on her sophomore album, “Hail to the Freaks,” (A Special …
At the outset of Tommy Johnagin‘s second stand-up comedy CD — titled, well, “Stand Up Comedy 2” — the comedian implores upon the audience: “Don’t suck. I’m going to hold up my end. I’m going to need you guys to bring it also.” And bring it he does. Over the course …
At this point in his career, Daniel Tosh has two different personas in the public’s eye. To strangers, he’s a clever stand-up comedian with observations on modern life and current events. To Comedy Central viewers — particularly boys-to-men in their teens and 20s, he’s the guy they look to to …
Christina Pazsitzky makes it easy to laugh at and with her. Pazsitsky opens her debut comedy disc, “It’s Hard Being A Person,” (Rooftop Comedy) from Go Bananas by telling the audience how happy she is to be in Cincinnati, because it means she has escaped from her home in fake Los …
I’ve called Baron Vaughn a quintuple threat before, praising his ability to weave back and forth from joke-telling, acting, dancing, singing and rapping, plus an intangible quality he brings to the stage. Of course, not all of his talents can be seen on a CD — perhaps he should have put …
