I was going there to see Patton Oswalt, who has a brilliant CD out, but was staying to see the rest of the bunch -- Zach Galafianakis, Brian Poshen, Maria Bramford, and special guest Todd Barry. I was excited to see Todd Barry announced, his web site (that receipt museum kills me) and a Comedy Central show I’d downloaded as an mp3 a year or so ago has brought many laughs.
Patton opened up the show as a sort of warm up and reinforced my belief that he’s clearly the king of this road show. But then Zach Galifianakis came on (the guy on piano in the pic) and fucking killed. He is like a combo of Steven Wright and that comedian that played piano and Mitch Hedberg – because he has that a bit stoned feeling about him – and yet definitely has his own thing... oozing confidence. He did have his own talk show on VH1 for about half a season--I may be the only person who remembers that. He got the crowd to buy him a shot and played to the cameras more than anyone else. Anyway, if you ever see him playing in your town, catch him, he puts on a great show -- not just your regular stand up shit.
The entire show was being filmed for Comedy Central. Many jokes were made at their expense. Not just this show but part of the compiled 6 northeast shows making up this tour. They played Atlantic City before Boston and every one of them made a point of how abysmal that crowd was. We were up at the top of the stairs and right behind the sax player that showed up at the end of Zach’s set. So hey, I may be on basic cable tv.
Brian Poshen & Maria Bramford kept the crowd going (they were good, but I'm moving on). And Patton came on afterward to put the thing to bed. Obviously they’ve set him up as the star of the show – but he definitely proves it. He took requests (Robert Evans! Tom Carvel!) and pretty much made sure everyone went home happy. They whole lot of them gave signatures at the merch booth and I bought a t-shirt and Patton’s 222 album. (If anyone knows where my Mr. Show tour t-shirt is, let me know.)
Todd Barry was a bit off – maybe the whole special guest thing wasn’t working for the crowd. I was a bit jealous myself for NYC getting Eugene Mirman but like I said, I dig the guy’s material. He didn’t bomb by any means, but the crowd, I think, was pretty eager to get Patton back on the stage.
Anyway, I’ve gone on much too long and in too dry a way – so since the fucking tour thing’s over with already, go catch it censored up the fucking ass on Comedy Central and wish you were there.
I recommend buying Patton’s 222 album – I don’t give a shit if you’ve never heard of him before or whathaveyou – they don’t make comedy albums like this anymore and they most likely never will. I swear it’s a classic to have, and every person who ever liked a stand-up act not conducted by a southern gimmick or a prop-wielding idiot will love and cherish it. Goodnight.
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