Stand-up Comedy Review: “Joe Rogan: Talking Monkeys in Space”

Joe Rogan once described himself on the Opie and Anthony show as the bridge between the meatheads and the potheads, and I can’t think of a more perfect description. Like most people I think I first became aware of Joe Rogan on NewsRadio, where he spent four years playing the eccentric electrician Joe Garrelli. After that he spent five years as the host of Fear Factor, where he shouted encouragement to large breasted women eating animal genitalia. And now, if you happen to see Rogan on TV, he’s likely to be offering color commentary for the UFC or interviewing a fighter at ringside. That’s quite an eclectic resume, and the reason I think he’s enjoyed success with such a wide variety of careers is that he doesn’t take any of it too seriously.

But despite all of his other jobs, Joe is a comedian first and foremost. And the aspect of this career that I enjoy the most has to be his appearances on the Opie and Anthony show, where he functions as half pied piper for hallucinogenic drugs and half mad scientist, turning the boys onto all sorts of weird and interesting information about the world around us. Just imagine watching the Science Channel while high, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.





“Talking Monkeys in Space” is Joe’s most recent stand-up special, and in it he talks about evolution, and how it doesn’t mean that there’s no God. “All I’m saying is that God created a monkey, that doesn’t like to think it’s a monkey, and lies a lot.” He talks about how a lot of human behavior is just ‘leftover monkey shit’. Whether it’s climbing to the highest branch or following the alpha male with the shiniest fur. He takes on bullshit artists like Ted Haggerty and Dr. Phil, people who succeed in life based on nothing more than telling people what they want to hear. But no matter the topic, Joe always manages to put an interesting spin on it and make you think about it in a way that you never have before, and of course, make you laugh. So check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Stand-Up Comedy Review: “Bill Maher: The Decider”

Fewer things polarize people as much as politics and comedy. Put them together and every time you open your mouth you’re probably pissing off more people than you’re pleasing, whether you’re funny or not. Bill Maher has made a career out of pulling no punches with his political material, calling it like he sees it regardless of how unpopular his opinion may be, and of course, pissing people off. Apart from a few early stand-up specials, my introduction to Bill Maher was “Politically Incorrect” on Comedy Central. One of my fondest childhood memories in fact is having breakfast with my dad and watching the show on the weekends when they would replay the week’s episodes. It’s become almost cliché now for my generation to get our news and political commentary from comedic sources like “The Daily Show”, but for me without comedians like Bill Maher and Dennis Miller, I never would have become interested in politics. It’s a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

From Comedy Central to ABC, and then finally to HBO with “Real Time”, Maher continues to mix serious political discussion with his own biting satire, closing each show with a segment that he calls “New Rules”.



“The Decider” (2007) is Maher’s parting salvo at the Bush administration. He comments in the opening minutes how with all the scandals, blunders and missteps, the country has “fuck-up fatigue”, wherein the citizenry has so come to accept the incompetence of the presidency that they’ve lost their outrage. Well Bill is here to stoke that fire and make sure that we never forget what a nightmare the last eight years have been. He takes us through the highlights, applying his ever-sharp wit to all of the usual suspects.

But it isn’t just the Republicans that draw Bill’s ire. He takes shots at lobbyists, the pharmaceutical industry, organized religion, and the pussification of the American male. But no matter the topic, his perspective and his frank delivery does well to point out the ridiculousness of it and make it funny. Thanks to YouTube, the entire special is up for viewing. So as Levar Burton once said, you don’t have to take my word for it.

Stand-Up Comedy Review: “Louis CK: Chewed Up”

If I had to make a list of my favorite comedians working today (and believe me, I’ve tried), Louis CK would definitely be near the top. I first became aware of Louis years ago, from HBO and comedy central. His act then wasn’t as personal as it is today, but he still had a distinctive way of looking at things and an absurd rawness that was very funny. He’s written for David Letterman, Chris Rock, and of course his own show on HBO “Lucky Louie”, which was a much more honest and unique take on the sitcom format. Too unique perhaps, as it was canceled after only one season. Louis is also a regular guest on my favorite radio show, Opie and Anthony.



There’s an honesty in Louis’ comedy that you don’t see very often. It’s almost cliché these days to say that a comedian is ‘outrageous’ or ‘tells it like it is’. So much of that is false, forced shock that comics try to pass off as jokes. But when you look deeper, there really isn’t anything funny there (I’m looking at you, Carlos Mencia). Louis CK is the only comedian that I’ve seen that is so raw and honest about his own life and family. He’s middle-aged, married (now divorced) with two kids, and he talks candidly about how much his life sucks. As a parent, it’s surprising to hear someone give voice to those darker things that we sometimes think and feel and are embarrassed by. And more importantly, he makes it funny.



But family isn’t the only thing that Louis focuses his ire on. He talks about getting older, and how at a certain point in your life doctors stop trying to fix the things that go wrong with your body. Your ankle hurts? You didn’t twist it, it’s just old and shitty now and you have to live with it. He talks about language and about society, and with everything he touches on there’s a truth and a frankness that’s both refreshing and hilarious. You get the sense that he doesn’t talk the way he does for shock value, but because he’s just too tired and world weary to be tactful.

“Chewed Up” is available on DVD and to view instantly on Netflix. Check it out for yourself, you won’t be sorry.

Netflix Rating: Four out of Five Stars

Stand-Up Comedy Review: “Jim Jefferies: I Swear to God”

Jim Jefferies is a comedian that I’ve only recently been made aware of thanks to his appearances on The Opie and Anthony Show. For anyone familiar with O&A, Jefferies is best described as the Australian equivalent of Jim Norton. His style is honest, raw, raunchy at times, unapologetic, filthy, no holds barred, take no prisoners, and absolutely hilarious.

In his opening salvo, Jefferies takes on religion. An unabashed atheist, he makes no bones about telling the Christians in the audience that they are free to believe how they wish, but that they are wrong. He takes a look at some of the tenets of Christianity and pokes holes in them. Adam and Eve, Noah’s arc, Heaven and Hell. He touches on Jews and Muslims as well, just to make sure no one feels left out.

He moves on to more personal topics, talking about his family. This is where I think his set is the strongest, where he’s the most real and honest. The stories he tells are funny and relatable. He makes no attempt to dress his act up in artifice or pepper it with clever wordplay, which I think gives the stories a much more intimate feel, like your not watching a comedian at all but sharing stories with a friend.

The final bit is a story that is so dirty, I won’t even attempt to repeat it here. Not because I’m afraid to offend, it simply has to be heard to be believed. Reading it in stark black and white wouldn’t do it justice to the way he tells it, and I wouldn’t want to put anyone off before they get to make their own judgment. Suffice it to say, it’s funny, but it’s not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

My Netflix Rating: Four out of Five Stars

Stand-Up Comedy Review: “Patton Oswalt: My Weakness is Strong”

In many ways I fit into the classic definition as a geek, but not all of my geekly obsessions are the usual suspects. Yes, there’s Star Trek and comic books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and fan fiction and all of the other things that make you picture me pushing up my taped up horn rimmed glasses whenever I talk about them (for the record, my glasses are neither taped nor horn rimmed, they are quite stylish). But among my chief obsessions in life is something that few people think of when they think of geeks, and that’s stand-up comedy. It started early, when I was a kid, ironically enough in the 80’s, when stand-up comedy wasn’t very good. I watched MTV’s Half-Hour Comedy Hour, VH1’s Stand-Up Spotlight, A&E’s An Evening at the Improv, and I rented every stand-up concert that I could find at the video store. I will admit, my early tastes weren’t very sophisticated. It’s true, I used to like Gallagher. There, I said it, I feel better now. And then one day I rented “Carlin at Carnegie”, and my world changed forever. George Carlin continued to be a hero of mine up into adulthood and still is today, influencing my current tastes in comedy still. Thankfully the 80’s ended, and stand-up comedy got a lot better and continues to do so. Smarter, darker, more edgy, more relevant. So for this feature, I’ll be reviewing some of my favorite stand-up concerts from today and yesterday. And for my first review, I’m going to start with the latest special from my favorite comedian working today, Patton Oswalt.

Oddly enough one of the main themes of this special is something that longtime fans of Patton never would have guessed he could ever touch on, impending fatherhood. Once the angry, nerdy bridge troll of comedy who once lamented on how it’s not okay for people to even be holding babies in his presence, because they are essentially tiny shirtless humans with bags of their own crap tied around their waists, this is major news. Patton informs the audience of the news in his own unique way (“I hate, I hate, it is all I am capable of, you knew that when you took my seed woman!”) and then laments on how much he’ll miss the drugs that he has to give up. Far from dulling his edge, Patton’s new found mature and responsible lifestyle only gives him a new perspective on the world, one that he can apply his ever sharp wit to. There are several more bits in the special that showcase the more domestic side of our favorite height challenged misanthrope. There’s one about trick-or-treaters coming to his house, and another about how in the process of house hunting, he and his wife came across the morning aftermath of an orgy. All of it is hilarious.

Patton tackles religion in this special as well, explaining it as a way for the weaker of primitive man to keep the strong from killing them, by promising sky cake in the afterlife. It’s a simple analogy that goes a long way toward explaining the way religion is used to control people, and also to point out the ridiculousness in killing each other over the details of whatever sky dessert happens to await us in the world beyond (It’s not sky cookies, it’s sky CAKE! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you all!).

And of course, Patton touches on politics as well. His legendary vitriol against George W. Bush makes a brief appearance as he segues into talking about Obama/Biden, and how the White House has become the setting for an 80’s buddy cop movie. He also laments on the possibility of traveling back through time just a scant ten years so he can blow his own mind by telling himself that we in the future have elected a black man with the middle name of a dictator as president of the United States. Crazy.

But even with the old standbys of politics and religion, I think Patton truly shines when he’s relating more personal experiences from his life. His insights and his twist on things are always funny, and always thought provoking. The man’s edge remains fully intact.

My Netflix Rating: Four out of Five Stars