CD Review
Comedy Juice All-Stars
4 1/2 stars (out of 5)
Infused with the often ingenious humor of the Comedy Juice All-Stars is a luxurious dollop of wisdom presented with the perfect lack of pretention we’ve come to expect from modern elites of the stage. Although full of relieving analysis of the petit nuance of life such as Pete Holmes mimicking one man’s inability to linguistically court the elusive term ‘lime’ and subsequent claiming that the man has a “confused spongy think holder,” there is also more pronounced philosophy that is deployed in fitting acquiescence with the jokes, like Dov Davidoff’s killer finale track “A Deeper Way to Exist.”
Nearly twice as long as any other comedian’s submission, Davidoff touches on how to out crazy homeless people for a little solitude on the street and how having fake boobs and reprimanding people who stare is like going to Disney World in a mouse costume and verbally abusing children who approach you. Also he describes his experiences conversing with a 21 year old date, which is like listening to the “dut, dut, dut,” auditory chaos of a helicopter with the occasionally audible phrase slipping out like American Idol, and he explains that though he is not too old to “put this in there” as far as the conversation he is “Moses old for this shit…to pretend this isn’t taking a piece of my soul.” This is part of a larger contemplation of how to operate as an older man and as a person in general in this absurd blitz of commercial society, how he feels we are utterly lied to about the composition of our surroundings, how Pringles are only 20% potato chip and we are sold shirts that are 80% pants.
Gigantically funny Hannibal Burress recounts us his position as “Poseidon of the Apartment Building” who leaves the water running for forty five minutes and maybe even saves a drowning soul because he wanted to play Madden before he showers. He assures us his methods may be different than ours. Anyone who hasn’t heard him yet begins to understand why he is growing so popular. Eddie Pepitone’s methods definitely are different, but his in-character raving as an absurdly pompous comedy maverick who is about to give a performance the audience doesn’t deserve because he “was on King of Queens twice” is joyously arrogant, and he never really begins the set because he has suspicion his only Twitter follower has finally come to him that very night to end his life. Kevin Shea relates to us the audience/comedian relationship when he explains he is nothing if he can’t get a laugh from an audience member he abruptly, crudely and successfully calls “Abercrombie and faggot.” He also mentions that he will have sex with prostitutes if he fails, and that he is actually going to have sex with prostitutes regardless.
Everyone on the CD deserves to be mentioned as Sadiki Fuller, Mike Kosta, John Roy, Ben Gleib and Butch Bradley cement why this compilation boasts an all-star theme. The CD is part of a national campaign to build more shows like the one Comedy Juice is currently running in New York, although mention of it is surprisingly absent from Comedy Juice’s website given its roster of participants and the utter magnitude of the work. This album nearly receives the hallowed accolade of a full five stars because there is not an unfunny minute, owed in part to the effectiveness of beginning tracks mid-set. The decision to choose for each comedian the most essential syrup of comedy tapped in its minutes of ripeness displays confidence in the comics and faith in the project as a whole. It truly is a fantastic work, the result of confidence and capability. The brevity of the project’s compilation time and its seemingly low priority with Comedy Juice testify to the strength of the show itself. The CD is available on itunes and at Amazon.com.
Chris Milea is a recovering liberal arts student graduating from New Paltz in August 2012.
