We don’t often get comedy albums to review. Actually, we’ve never gotten a comedy album to review. Thankfully, it was one that should definitely be on your holiday shopping list. Hey, it will be here next week at the rate this year is going. Only six months to go.
If you’ve never heard of Eugene Mirman, looking at the track listing that includes “Truth or Dare, Dogs, Tube Steak Sex Guys” alone will make you laugh and want to trail along with him while he captures his stories. His sarcasm, “pop culture canons” and ability to point out the stupidity of every day life just kills, like the Jack-in-the-Box promotion of “REAL” on their in-store signs for chicken strips, as if their food wasn’t real (which could actually be true). Or the time Mirman ran into Ace Frehley, who was drunk and being escorted down the stairs of the apartment building by his daughter, at which time Mirman warned ole Ace not to have a father-daughter interlude. Ah, yes.
He recalls the time when he was invited by Fuse, “a music channel for children,” to debate conservative comedians from the Right Stuff during the Republican National Convention. One area on their website turned “you might be a redneck” checklist into a the political version of “if you feel that an outbreak of malaria in Zimbabwe is the result of tax cuts, you might be a Democrat!” He states this is something that nobody would EVER think, comparing it to “if you’ve ever thrown a bar of soap at a baby’s head, you might be an Independent!”
And because the Right Stuff also had freedom slogans for their T-Shirts, Mirman was obliged to come up with some of his very own, “Freedom, like delicious seared tuna…only more so,” and “Freedom, let’s share the shit out of it!”
Along with the CD, Mirman has included a DVD that features a number of his own, DIY short films that further spotlight his obscure, hit-the-rewind button scenes of hilarity.
It’s no wonder that Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo and The Shins have taken Mirman along with them on tour as an opening act. He must have made the time traveling between towns go a hell of a lot quicker. Suggestion: bring En Garde, Society! along with you during those tedious stop and stop traffic treks. Laughing is way more fun than scowling, even if the person in car next to you thinks you’re nuts.
