CD REVIEW
Rocky LaPorte: Welcome to My World
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
By Ryan P. Carey
Rocky LaPorte is an old-fashioned clean comic whose one-liners are tight and delivers a change-up for Italian-American comedy which is known to be more aggressive and these days seems rarely available without profanity. LaPorte is a Steven Wrighted-down Dom Irrera. His pace is nice and slow, his attitude is refreshingly laid back. The Paesano elements of his act are for the mostly relegated to tags which add atmosphere and extra chortles.
The bulk of his material on Welcome to My World regards our daily struggles. Gas prices, compliment fishers, crappy zoos — an extended bit about his trip to the L.A. Zoo is probably the highlight of the album. His pacing is slightly above crawl, which works for his “goofy uncle” style of presentation.
Previously a truck driver and dock worker, LaPorte indulges in some blue-collar style stupidity glorification. A bit about going to court and not knowing what big words mean drags painfully during the first track. An iffy short second track about growing up in the Italian neighborhood does more to set up callbacks later in the CD than bring any substantial laughs. But after that we go to the aforementioned hilarious “Zoo,” and from there it’s consistently funny for the rest of the CD.
LaPorte has been working hard ever since he won the Johnny Walker National Comedy Competition in 1989. His bubble didn’t really seem to pop until 2004 when he started getting more regular television appearances. His CBS pilot, The Rocky LaPorte Show seemed doomed by the “The [Your Name Here] Show” sitcom curse. Championed for a while now by Tim Allen, LaPorte’s been in a couple of Allen’s movies such as Shaggy Dog and Crazy on the Outside. He can be seen live touring with Brad Garrett at Northeast casinos and big theaters. Due to his clean act and accessibility to any intellect, LaPorte is also popular at corporate gigs.
LaPorte’s CD, Welcome to My World is comprised of enough simplicity that a non-comedy fan (I’m going to give my copy to my dad when I’m done with it) will enjoy it, and it’s genuinely funny enough that all but the hippist, self-aware comedy nerds should be able to get some laughs as well.
Ryan P. Carey, D.D.S. is a Philadelphia-based comic and senior contributing writer for STAGE TIME. Check out his blog at http://dolphindentist.blogspot.com.
