AND THIS ONE

GOES LIKE THIS.

a pick six

by Hunter Jon

I listed my favourite stand-up comedy specials in a previous post. You can check out those picks here:

http://almostentertainment.blogspot.com/2020/04/goes-something-like-this.html

Now it’s time for stand-up comedy albums. However, I can’t really claim that these are my absolute favourites of all time. I’ve disqualified anything that is tied to a comedy special of any kind, whether audio from a special or a set of material that eventually became a special. This eliminates quite a few. So many, in fact, that when contemplating this list I decided the best route to take was to simply cite the comedy albums that I’ve listened to the most. Due to the nature of our current times, you’ll notice how relatively recent these all are. This is because I have them all on my phone. (In a few cases, the album is only available digitally - I couldn’t own a physical copy if I wanted to.) Which means these albums are literally in my pocket to listen to whenever or wherever I please. This is surely how each became a ‘most listened to’. Having said that, I should make it clear that I love each of these dearly, and nothing has made the list because of mere accessibility.

Here they are…

Julia is a wonderful anomaly. When covering bawdy ground that I don’t normally care to tread, her irresistibly earnest delivery makes me happy to be there. When her presentation is more on the abrasive side, which isn’t exactly my cup of tea, there’s always an astute observation underneath that easily wins me over. In other words, she’s skillfully cracked the code and offers something truly special that I feel the Schumers and Shlesingers of the scene (despite their massive successes) are lacking. I’ve been following her stand-up for a long time and was delighted when she released this album, which concisely complies her best bits. Early on, there’s a beat after a joke and then she says, “I really like dogs. Hate segues.” It’s such a lightening quick joke that the audience doesn’t quite grasp it. But when six words make me laugh that hard, that’s the work of a professional funny person.

Few comics combine absurd and abstract with honest, memoir-style confessionals as well as Bamford does. Her sets can be weirder than weird one minute and painfully relatable and healing the next - with some seriously spot on impressions/voices tying everything together. And, Christ, are her observations on human nature shrewd. The fact that her signature ‘thing’ isn’t a persona or character but simply her genuine self melts my heart… and makes everything all the funnier. In my opinion this album was her peak; the best blend of all she has to offer. You know you’re in safe hands when she opens with: “Sometimes when I say party, I mean eat organic Fig Newtons, watch the Discovery Health Channel and cut out pictures from ‘O’ magazine that resonate with me…”

I would guess most stand-ups suffer from anxiety. Perhaps depression. But I haven’t heard any acknowledge it as bluntly as Aparna. Her doing so should be a downer and make her comedy very ‘dark’. But that’s not the case. She pulls off the magic trick of sharing all she’s suffering from and struggling with while managing to be light, likeable and very, very funny. The topics she addresses are normally accompanied by an ugly underlining resentment and cynicism. She projects everything but. Carrie Fisher famously said, “Take your pain and make it art”… well, Nancherla does so better than most. Her joke about getting stuck walking behind a couple holding hands and feeling like she’s trapped in the end credits of their rom-com is everything to me.

Nothing like this had ever happened before, nor will it ever happen again. It’s a once in a lifetime recording. And it challenges the medium, because it’s a stand-up set where the aim to be funny takes the back seat. It was brave of Tig. It was brilliant of Tig. Yet you just know she wasn’t directly attempting either. That’s why it works so well. By the time she tells ‘the bee joke’, she’s inadvertently stumbled into one of the most effective and satisfying punchlines of all time. For the longest time I thought the title was “Live”, as in a live recording. But I’ve since learned it’s “Live”, as in the act of living. It’s not only thought provoking wordplay - it’s a stealthy celebration of life, as is the album itself.

“I haven’t slept for ten days… because that would be too long.”

Hedberg approaches his first CD recording with a lax irreverence that is too cool for school. In fact, this may be the definitive ‘cool’ album of the modern stand-up era, complete with a jazzy double bass score throughout. There’s a moment where he can barely get a joke out before laughing at himself, admitting “ - alright, that joke is ridiculous”; talk about an unpolished, loose set. It (thankfully) captures that precise moment when what he’s been working on is finally beginning to work and work well - but he doesn’t necessarily know the significance of it yet. He’s still underground and innocent. His time in Hamburg, you could call it. His one-liners hardly reveal anything about his personal life, yet he creates an atmosphere so intimate that by the album’s end you feel like you're pals. Not since Carson has a comedian been able to make a joke falling flat work so well to his advantage. Sure, no one can deny that Steven Wright paved the way for this type of thing, but Mitch was truly one of a kind… and probably a genius.

Despite being on training wheels here (unusually sturdy ones, mind you), Nate’s voice is fully developed and hasn’t changed one bit. At a time when so many comedians are modelling themselves after the ‘biggies’ in the business, Nate is a true original. Most obviously, how clean and dry he is. And by clean, I mean he doesn’t curse. By dry, I mean his droll delivery. He’s so laid back here, and so conversational, that you don’t so much feel like you’re listening to ‘comedy’ as you feel like you’re hanging out with your funniest friend. Perhaps this is the biggest compliment I can give the guy: he and I have nothing in common. Nothing. Yet I love everything about this album. Everything from its cover, to its material, to the names of the actual tracks, to the man himself. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to it. It’s been amazing to watch/listen to Bargatze grow as a comic, and I suspect he is on his way to becoming America’s comedian - one the whole family can enjoy.

“Have you ever been yelled at by a clown? I have.” Brilliant.