Greg Giraldo: A Good Day to Cross the River

If you’ve seen a Comedy Central Roast from the last ten years, you are already a little familiar with Greg Giraldo’s work. To date, he has been on all but one of these roasts, appearing more than any other performer. In order to keep being invited back means a few things. First, he has the respect of his peers. Second, he knows how to make fun of people. And third, he’s funny. They never invite back hated comedians who can’t tell a joke worth squat (Dane Cook and Carrot Top have each appeared only once). It’s no fluke that he’s funny at the roasts. Greg Giraldo is a funny man.

He is one of the top comedians today who delves into the issues of current events. From beginning to end his set is chalk full of commentary on news stories, political scandals, and public stupidity. In a previous review I gave comedian David Cross very low marks because his jokes were taking current events and making them even more depressing for the audience. Very few people want to hear that. Greg Giraldo does the exact opposite. He takes these stories that make people want to rip their hair out for and makes them funny, which is no easy feat.

Good Day to Cross the River has jokes ranging from dozens of topics. Almost all of them are very relevant to today, or rather, 2006, when the CD debuted. Giraldo quickly goes from one premise to another in such a very fluid style that most listeners probably don’t realize that he’s gone from talking about SUVs to burning genitals in less than three and a half minutes. He uses clever analogies and deprecating humor to get the most out of his jokes. However, as is the case with most deprecating humor, there will always be a good amount of shock value, jokes that use profanity to merely shock the audience into laughing. It’s hilarious, but it doesn’t have any substance. Not all profanity in stand-up is for shock value, far from it, and most of the profanity in Giraldo’s set isn’t either, but it is still present in his set.

This album does not have too many gut busters in it, but it is incredibly consistent in getting laughs in every track, which makes it hard in picking best and worst tracks. The boring segments are not too long, and are often rewarded with a good laugh. If you are into comedians like Lewis Black or Patton Oswalt, whose sets are dependent on news stories, you will probably like this album. He’s funny, without being offensive, and he can turn a depressing topic into a funny bit.

Worst Tracks: Room for Dessert/Death by Chocolate/Lent/Snacks, Katrina
Best Tracks: Dyslexic Luger/Civil War Letters/Kids/Baby in River, Terrorism

Overall Rating: 7/10

Eddie Izzard: Circle

I challenge you to think of ANY period in world history and I bet Eddie Izzard could make it hilarious. Eddie Izzard isn’t quite a household name in the US yet, despite his unbelievable success in England. In British television station’s poll, he ranked in the top 5 comedians of all time. Though he is most recognized for being a transvestite, Izzard is no gimmick. His sets consistently tackle issues of history and religion. From the small quirks to the big disasters, he can find a laugh in any joke he tells.

His style is very unique. He has no set routine before he goes out on stage. Typically, a comedian has everything planned out (first I’m going to do a joke about the grocery story, transition to fat people, then go on to make fun of the South…), but Izzard, though his jokes are prepared, does not have everything in order. His set is entirely stream-of-conscious, which has a few effects on his delivery. First, because he does not know what joke to jump to from time to time, you’ll hear a lot of “So yeah…” fillers followed quickly by the new premise. Second, in the middle of a joke, he’ll go on a long tangent based on something he said. These can be a single sentence to an entire track. These tangents are so well done, that when he returns to the joke he was initially telling, the audience is completely oblivious to the fact that it was even a tangent at all. They just expect that to be the natural stream of the joke.

Izzard also likes to poke fun at Americans, either by impersonating our unnecessary profanity, or criticizing our lack of interest in other countries’ affairs. For example, after joking about Northern Ireland for about 15 seconds to a silent American audience, Izzard exclaims “do you know there’s other countries?” And on that note, I present my first review for a comedian born outside of North America, Eddie Izzard’s 6th album, Circle.

“The Pope…what’s going on there, eh?”

It takes Eddie less than three minutes to start making jokes about religion and history, starting light at making fun of the Popes’ names and then moving on to the Crusades. He pokes fun out how petty the reasons for fighting were and how most of the conflicts were just differences of perspective. The set veers off to jokes about Jesus and how He plays a role in most major religions.

Side tangent about Americans and baseball. Yes, it oddly enough makes sense in context.

Back to religion! Eddie has a long bit about the role of Dinosaurs in Christianity. He ponders their absence in the Bible and recreates a scene in which Jesus goes down to preach His Father’s word to them the same way Christians believe He did for humans; it’s very reminiscent to Bill Cosby’s Noah jokes. From the conversations between Jesus and God to Jesus ad-libbing the beatitudes, the joke is a hit, and Mr. Cosby would be proud.

“It’s a fucking weaving joke…”

From there the album turns more towards more mundane topics, like seals being handy with balls to inventions of weaving tools, which even he can’t help but groan at. The jokes are entertaining, but nothing spectacular.

And now, the set turns towards his expertise: History. He gives brief highlights of history from the Roman Empire through the Dark Ages ending with World War II. Izzard makes fun of several figures in history, both big and small, and each joke is hilarious. He chooses WWII to make the most fun of Americans’ ignorance, primarily talking about Saving Private Ryan and how the movie completely ignores any foreign aid given in the war (“what’s the name for us? Oh yes, the ALLIES!”).

“Dad, don’t worry, nobody’s going to work it out for 2000 years until the transvestite points it out in New York”

Back to Religion! In the same light as the Dinosaur joke, Izzard jokes about God sending Jesus down as man. He performs it as if Jesus is recapping everything He did to God as if God wasn’t aware of what happened. God doesn’t seem too pleased with a few things Jesus tells the people. The joke puts Jesus’ words and messages in a new light. It’s nothing blasphemous (though Izzard’s certainly not afraid of such thing), and incredibly entertaining.

Finally, one of my favorite bits of his ends the album. Ever wonder how everybody on the Death Star in Star Wars eats? Izzard did, and he has a whole track dedicated to the Death Star Canteen. The whole joke is a dialogue between Darth Vader and a cashier in the cafeteria. A brilliant, original joke acted out perfectly.

This album puts more emphasis on religion and less on history than most of Izzard’s work, which is a little disappointing considering how great he can be with historical jokes. Nonetheless, the CD is filled with great, original material that is perfectly timed and executed. The only reasons I can imagine somebody not liking this are Izzard’s British mumbling, which is rare but present, and if somebody is touchy to topics of religion. He doesn’t hit it as hard as say David Cross, and he does make a point to have jokes about all major religions, but there is material that Christians MAY be offended at. Extreme emphasis on the “may”. Regardless, it’s a great album that I recommend to all.

Worst tracks: Mad European Cows, Hatred and Sharks
Best Tracks: Jesus and Man, Death Star Canteen

Overall Rating: 8/10

Redd Foxx: Sly Sex

Redd Foxx is an icon of comedy. He helped pave the way for two groups of comedians: African Americans, and comedians who joke about sex(Eddie Murphy thanked him by paying for his lavish funeral bill when his widow couldn't so that he would have a proper send-off). His set is known for being very raunchy and inappropriate for children to listen to. In fact, for a long time his records were not even sold in white record stores because they were too dirty. But eventually his stand-up landed him the famous role that most remember him for: Fred Sanford on Sanford and Son. During his very long career, he put out a whopping 54 albums, Sly Sex being one of the middle ones.

Now, it is difficult to find too much information on his album. Some comedy sites don't even list it in his discography, and the rest only give a year and album cover, if anything. After listening to it, I can tell why.

The problem with recording over fifty albums is that it doesn't give the comedian enough time to come up with quality material. In 1960 alone he released 9 albums, more than Chris Rock and Steve Martin recorded in their entire careers...combined. Today, comedians usually take at least a year or two between releases, between which they are touring and testing out their new material. Now, I know that if you took all of Foxx's albums, and took the best three hours of all of them, you'd have three amazing CDs, but grouped as they are, it's much more difficult to find a gem.

Foxx's material in Sly Sex is just poor. They sound like bad jokes you hear from your grandfather or read in a joke book. They aren't addressing any issues, they aren't mocking any aspect of life, they aren't particularly witty. They're just fluff. Some of it is dirty fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

Now like I said, he had an impossible task of coming up with material in a very short time. I don't know the specifics of his contract with Dooto Records or whether it was his choice or theirs, but it ruined the album, that's for sure.

Besides the bad material, Foxx is definitely playing in a very small venue. Sometimes this can be a great thing for a comedian. It gives them a more intimate setting where their jokes can have a greater effect. Except in this case, you can identify everybody's laughs and can hear their comments to him very clearly. It may have helped Redd out, but for the listening audience, it completely takes away from the act, especially as they laugh to very poor jokes.

Also, as with the case with most old comedy albums, the track's are not neatly cut up and titled, so Sly Sex consists of Side 1, and Side 2. With this one, I'm not even going to try to tell which is better and which is worse. They're both terrible.

Overall rating: 1/10

Norm MacDonald: Ridiculous

Norm MacDonald first hit national spotlight when he was a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the 1990's. He anchored the Weekend Update for a few years, becoming one of the fans' favorite anchors in the shows amazing tenure. Along with his writing and acting, Norm also performs stand up comedy (go figure) and has the honor of making Comedy Central's top 100 comedians of all time (as have five of the other comedians I've reviewed), and is a popular name in numerous comedy cliques.

His style is very unique, in that, not only is he not afraid to bomb, he will do it intentionally. For example, on the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, Norm told overly cheesy, stupid jokes that barely made fun of Saget. This contrasted the usual roast so well that most of the audience and viewers at home were cringing at how poorly he was doing. But if you watch the comedians on the side listening, you'll notice that they're laughing harder at Norm's material than anybody else's, because they know exactly what he's doing, and they get a kick out of it. He'll even perform cheesy old jokes on talk shows for the same purpose. Conan O'Brien has noted that Norm is one of his favorite guests.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Why the hell isn't Joe talking about the CD at all? We want to hear about his stand-up in this CD!" Hold your horses, folks. Despite Norm's famed and noteworthy career, he has but one album to offer his fans, Ridiculous, and it's not even a stand-up album. Instead, Norm comprises his CD of sketches similar to what he would write or perform on SNL. He even uses some of his former cast-members for the parts (Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, and Tim Meadows to name a few). So this review won't be talking about his stand-up, but more his writing.

Norm starts off with a parody of the Fantastic Four, making fun of their super identities' names. He plays a Mr. Fantastic who cannot comprehend why the other members of the group have any problem with his egotistical name. The punchlines are set up incredibly well, and Norm's timing and acting are superb as he delivers them. Starting with the first funny line through the end of the track, he gives line after line of funny material.

Following this track is a long one about a country music legend who is coming out of years of hiding to produce a new album. Slowly, the producers realize that their beloved legend is now gay...very gay. Panic ensues as they try to think of ways to cover it up. The jokes in this track are good, but not quick enough. It's a 19 minute long track that could have been shorted to 12, and there's just too much time between funny lines. Like I said, the jokes are good, but audiences have to go through a lot of waiting to get to them.

Next is the first of two three-track jokes. I'll go through the three tracks in this paragraph to simplify things. It revolves around a sportscaster (Norm) who has clearly bet a lot of money on the outcome of the football game he is announcing. From kickoff, to half-time, to the two minute warning (the three tracks), he's concerned about his quarterback's potentially debilitating disease and how it will affect his wager. Good jokes, good set ups, good tracks.


The other three-track joke is probably his best set of the CD. The subject: The first two men to discover gay sex. Right away you know the set can be either brilliant or horrendous. For it, Norm calls on the comedy talent of Will Ferrell, who will do anything for a laugh, in a good way (see his SNL sketch wearing patriotic short shorts for proof). Him and Norm play two dudes who realize that they love sex, but don't currently have any women present, and have to find some sort of solution to their dilemma at hand. Ferrell goes ALL out to make these tracks an absolute gut-buster. While Norm is also excellent as the straight man (for lack of a better term), credit for these tracks goes mostly to Will. These three tracks are evenly dispersed on the CD, which creates a great flow of laughs, as they create very few long pauses of comedy. Well done, Norm.

There are a few more sketches thrown in on the CD, but nothing too notable, unless you have a fetish for Molly Shannon talking dirty. Norm does, at the end, play one of his older stand-up bits about Star Search. Sorry, I guess my earlier comment that this was not a stand up CD was slightly off. It's not particularly a great bit, but it does give the audience a good glimpse of Norm's style and stage presence.

Overall, this CD is very funny, with mostly clean humor, though the parts of it that aren't clean, can be quite raunchy. Like I've said repeatedly, don't go into this expecting stand-up. Some of the tracks can be a bit slow, but they are mostly for the purpose of setting up punchlines, as each new track brings about a completely different joke, no transitions like most good stand-up has. If you like Norm MacDonald, you will probably like this CD, but if you've listened to him and you just don't get him, this may not be the best album for you, though I think it's still worth a listen.

Worst Tracks: Tex Hooper, Burning Bed
Best Tracks: [World's First Two Gay Guys, A Wonderful Afternoon Gone Awry, Do You Want A Sandwich Or Anything?], Fantastic Four

Overall rating: 7/10

Dick Gregory: In Living Black and White

Before there was Richard Pryor, before there was Bill Cosby, there was Dick Gregory. A leading pioneer in African American stand-up comedy, Gregory was more than jokes, he was social justice. He was one of the first comedians to perform for both white and black audiences and used his microphone and satire to help advance the civil rights movement. In Living Black and White was the first of 12 albums he released in a 14 year span. Fortunately for the comedy world, he started off on the right foot.

Something I found interesting about this CD which I have yet to encounter with any other album, is that there are breaks between each track with commentary. Scripted, and sounding like an old radio broadcast, a voice comes on introducing each new joke. They are short segues, however they seem to take away from the natural flow of a set. I plan on looking into this further when I get the chance. Now to the jokes

Gregory starts off by talking about how he's always being compared to white comedians like Mort Sahl and Bob Newhart. Right off the bat, Gregory's jokes deal with the dichotomy of the world, by narrowing in on the dichotomy of the comedy world. He goes on to comment on the evolution of stand-up comedy, and how it takes a lot more to get the same amount of laughs. He demonstrates this by telling a joke that would be told 20 years ago (or, in our case, 70 years ago) and pointing out how unfunny it is. His audience's silence shows their accord. Then he retells the same joke with a different, better punchline that draws a much better reaction from the crowd. This joke resonates even today. Most audiences today, especially the younger ones, could listen to Lenny Bruce or Bob Hope and not think it's nearly as funny as audiences did back then. A very original joke premise that I have not heard from any other comedian.

Next Gregory jokes about being black in the South, citing one incident where he accidentally stumbled into a restaurant that didn't want him in it. A controversial subject for any audience becomes a big laugh for everybody. This led to a series of political, current event jokes, mostly dealing with the election of Kennedy and the departure of Eisenhower. Political jokes are generally pretty good for laughs, and Gregory's are no exception. One topic he likes to joke about is African American voting, especially the political machine of Chicago rigging the elections, "we're trying to make up for the times we couldn't vote"

Staying in the realm of current events, his material turns to the Cold War and, particularly, the race to space. He makes a topic of heavy turmoil and caution a laughable subject by mocking both are concern over losing the race as well as lightly poking fun of the Soviets.

Following these are a few more less than memorable (though still enjoyable) jokes dealing with marriage, the Israeli-Palestinian debacle, and various employment opportunities. No gut busters, but several very amusing jokes. The last track, however, had the biggest laugh of the CD, at least for me, when he talks about being in a bad situation in an airplane. A well constructed set up, and a punchline that surprises any audience. The best joke on the CD.

If you're a real fan of comedy, this CD is a must have for its contribution and inspiration for the art of stand-up. But like I said earlier, much of today's audience won't get the same kind of kick out of the jokes as listeners did in 1961. Though I still recommend it to anybody. I think it would even hold merit being taught in an American history course, because of it's material concerning racial tension in the South and the Cold War.

Worst tracks: 100 Proof, Middle East
Best Tracks: 50,000 ft-and No Insurance, Comedian of the 60's

Overall rating: 8/10

Nick Thune: Thick Noon

This is my first review from an album made post-2006. I first heard about it when I was reading a list of albums Comedy Central Records had produced. I saw this and saw it was around such names as Joe Rogan, Lewis Black, and Daniel Tosh in the list of albums made this year. He's certainly not in bad company. After realizing how far behind I was on my more recent comedy purchases, I picked up a couple of newer albums, this being one of them. A mostly unknown comedian, he has slowly risen through the ranks as both an actor and stand-up, appearing in Knocked Up and Unaccompanied Minors and coming out with a CD and Comedy Central web-series. Needless to say, I was intrigued to see how good this album would be.

The first ten minutes of the album are hysterical. He throws out several one liners and very short anecdotes to the tune of him playing guitar, very reminiscent of Demetri Martin or Zach Galifianakis. Like Martin, he switches around common phrases or words to make them into a joke. And like Galifianakis, he throws out potentially very awkward social scenes and ends with out he would react if he were in those circumstances.

After a few tracks of these, his set turns more towards long-form jokes, starting with a joke centered around following a stoned friend around and recording his actions. Hilarious situation with hilarious punchlines. The following singing tracks aren't really songs, as much as Thune telling long-formed jokes to a rhythm of guitar while occasionally singing out a line here or there. There aren't many gut-busting lines here, but they are nevertheless very amusing throughout, and they keep the audience entertained (mostly).

The last five tracks of the album are devoted entirely to singing jokes. These aren't the same as the previous singing jokes, because in these, Thune is legitimately singing, not just talking to melody. Typically, I don't like singing comedians, because they just seem so gimmicky and cheap. Thune is no exception. These tracks are a bore and I really wouldn't have missed anything if I had just ended the CD before they started. I understand the creativity in them, but honestly, if you have funny material, and you can tell jokes (which he clearly can judging by the earlier portion of the CD), then just find a way to work them into your regular set. There's no need to show your musical talent while the audience is sitting there wanting to laugh (most of these final tracks are studio-recorded, but still).

Nick Thune got the crowd into it quick, but slowly lost them; a better organized set would do wonders for him. Throwing long-form jokes in with the one liners prolongs the audiences attention span. He has a lot of great material, he just needs to figure out how to use it better.

Worst tracks: Red Bull Decaf, Backflip (in addition to all the singing tracks)
Best tracks: Weed Timeline, I Don't Care

Overall Rating: 5/10

George Lopez: Right Now Right Now

George Lopez is the prominent Latino comedian in today’s stand-up circle. Influenced by Hispanic comedians like Cheech and Chong and Fredde Prinze, the torch of the Latino-American has been unofficially passed to him (though Carlos Mencia keeps trying to steal it), and he accepts the responsibility. He has done many great things to help the Latino community, and his community as a whole through his philanthropic efforts. He even tries to bring as much diversity in entertainment through his television shows. It’s no surprise that his sets are centered around his heritage.

From his first joke to his last, he essentially just talks about one thing: being Mexican-American. He delves into numerous aspects of growing up in such a household, from being raised poor, to family “vacations” to Mexico, to anticlimactic birthdays, Lopez gives the audience a very clear idea of what his childhood was like.

However, Lopez’s biggest demographic is his own, and it’s clear that much of his audience already seems familiar with the situations he describes. I listened to one of his jokes with a friend of mine (both of us are white), and there were parts that we didn’t quite get, but the audience was hysterical. Throughout his CD, Lopez will throw in some Spanish sentences (mostly imitating one of his family members/friends) that will go over the head of any non-Spanish speaker. I can only assume that they’re funny, since the audience is eating it up. Though, to be honest, even if you only know a little bit of Spanish, you can piece together what he says, add the context of the joke, and have a good idea of what he’s saying. Some people don’t like to think that much when they listen to comedy, but the parts I was able to piece together were entertaining.

When he’s describing life as a poor Mexican-American, he is sure to compare his lifestyle with the typical suburban white family. This seems like it would be instinctive, but there are plenty of comedians who joke about their own culture/background without comparing it to the larger demographic, and it hurts the set (Dat Phan comes to mind). He does a good job painting the picture and showing the contrast, but I have to say, I cannot stand his white-person voice. Everybody knows what I’m talking about; most minority comedians have a distinct voice that they use to refer to white people (white comedians Daniel Tosh and Mike Birbiglia even have jokes about it). Dave Chappelle’s sounds like a news anchor, Carlos Mencia’s sounds like a southerner, and George Lopez’s sounds like a valley girl. It’s not offensive, it just gets a little annoying after a while. Minor criticism, nothing deal-breaking.

One thing that Lopez does very well is set up a foundation for his jokes. I’m not referring to the set-up for a punch-line, I mean setting up jokes in the future. Latino idiosyncrasies that he jokes about in the beginning of the CD keep coming up again and again in the later tracks. He does this so well that regardless of how good a punch-line is towards the 15^th, 16^th, 17^th track, he makes it instantly funnier by adding a quick quip from an old joke. It helps build for later jokes, and aids the jokes that aren’t particularly strong on their own. The end result is a very consistent stream of comedy.

My biggest criticism for this CD is that Lopez never veers away from his main premise. A great comedian is able to joke about a wide variety of topics and their wide variety of subtopics. Right Now Right Now only deals with many subcategories of the same subject: life as a Mexican-American. Yes, his jokes on this subject are quite good, and there is a lot of material in it, but half-way through the CD, I was hoping he’d move on to something else; he needed to shake things up. As mixed up as it sounds, it’s easier for an audience to stay with you when you make a few turns than when you just go straight.

To sum everything up, what would make this an excellent CD is his layered material and his consistency of quality jokes. What would make this CD poor is its one-trick-pony tendency and its limitations on a larger demographic. Overall, a quality CD that’s good for laughs.

Worst Tracks: Holmes Depot, Original Factory Color

Best Tracks: Memmer?...You Memmer!, Chicano Dudes

Overall rating: 6/10