CD Review
Darryl Lenox: Blind Ambition
4.5 stars (out of 5)
Darryl Lenox’s CD Blind Ambition reminds me of the one set of 2012 no one ever expected would be compared to another: Tig Notaro’s instantly legendary performance at Largo. Albeit less grave, his recounting of losing sight in one eye is remarkable for letting the audience intimately learn of something serious with the assurance that life is good and they should laugh.
Lenox gets chummy with his Canadian brethren which will be interesting to the American listener; with a foot in each culture, he is a keen observer of semblance and juxtaposition. Note his different perceptions of the Hockey Player Attitude and the NFL Wide Receiver Attitude. Note how “there are no Real Housewives of Burnaby, Canada.” His American expertise in his adult life may be in part because of a one year deportation from Canada: “The truth will set you free in the Bible, never at the border.”
Not only a Northern North America expert, he has a keen perception of both sexes too, and by the part of the set the man/woman bits begin you probably really, really like Lenox as a person. The audience’s response has the tinted sound of laughter after tears (laftercry), though it wasn’t a pity bath or anywhere near the severity of the Notaro set, it was just real; the tone of the beginning and the poignant humor it allows resound and return through the entire show. Lenox addresses the stereotypes/sympathies usually applied to blindness and makes one again realize this is a man worth listening too.
While introspection inducing big picture stuff is certainly brought, it must be clear: Lenox is so remarkable in transition and planning that this set is loaded with jokes! A few: The inability of the aroused, drunk female to whisper, a miracle cough drop, negotiations with God, a Canadian’s inability to sue. Blind Ambition is one of the best sets of the year.
The CD is available November 13.
