Comic Convergence

    Over the weekend three of my favorite comics all came to town. A remarkable comedy nexus in the space/time continuum. I wasn’t able to make the Stephen Lynch show at Clutch Cargo’s on Friday, but I did get to see Dave Attell and Lewis Black on Saturday (October 4) at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater. (You can read more about the tour at Comedy Central’s site.)
    I didn’t catch the name of the emcee, who did his own few minutes. After that Mitch Hedberg was up. His routine was difficult to make out, since he has a tendency to eat the microphone. He had a surprising amount of material on the subject of ducks. He also seemed to be trying out material, which he read off a steno pad. Jokes frequently bombed, but he admitted he’d expected as much; although he did tease us a couple times by saying certain jokes had gone over better in Columbus (the night before).
    Lewis Black was a lot less political than I’d expected. His longest bit was about bottled water. He did rant about the upcoming tax cut though, citing how it would be $400 if you have a child. A dollar a day for your child, he concluded — which would be all right if you “lived in a Sally Struthers country!” He was visibly taken aback when someone shouted maybe we need a bigger tax cut. He put his head in his hand in disbelief, and then, the wind knocked out of his sails, patiently explained, with a few choice words, that we can’t have a bigger tax cut because we don’t have the money! Another observation I remember (which I hadn’t heard him do before) was the difference between Democrats and Republicans: “Democrats have no ideas, and Republicans have bad ideas.”
    Dave Attell’s routine was much like his (highly recommended) Skanks for the Memories CD. [Note: I’ve since learned that similarly much of Black’s routine is on his latest CD, Rules of Enragement.] His routine seems to be comprised of small chunks of material, rearranged into a kind of stream of consciousness. It makes me wonder if he’s ever lost his place one night and forgotten if he’s done part of it or not. Along the way he flirted with Cassandra in the first row, who was celebrating her birthday that night. And he got some audience participation going, right off the bat, when he invited the crowd to shout out what they’d been drinking and he would then predict how their night would end. I’ve forgotten most of them and they would’ve been unprintable anyway. I do remember when one girl shouted out the drink name “Red-headed Whore”, Dave declared “You’re coming home with me.”
    Both Dave Attell and Lewis Black stuck around afterward to pose for pictures and sign stuff in the lobby. Attell had only his one CD and an Insomniac DVD for sale while Lewis Black had a DVD and four CDs. When I got to the signing table I told Dave he needs to put out a new CD. He looked a little surprised and replied that the CD just came out.
    Trying to save face, I replied “Really? I guess I’ve been playing it too much.”
    He smiled and mentioned that he does have a new DVD coming out. I presume it’s another volume of Insomniac, but I wasn’t able to ask since he was already getting up to pose for a picture with the people behind me. I meant to ask Lewis Black if he’d seen President Bush’s poetry, but instead I completely chickened out as he signed my poster.

Dave Attell & Lewis Black

    I also meant to ask him how busy his schedule is, since I’d just seen him on The Daily Show on Thursday. That had to have been pretaped though, since the Comedy Central site shows the tour was in Cincinnati that night.
    Anyway, it was a great night with a lot of laughs. In short…you shoulda hung out, maaan!