Comedy CD Review: Trenton Davis: @TrentonComedy

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2020
Images from the Internet

 

Trenton Davis
@TrentonComedy
Uproar Comedy, 2020
www.uproarcomedycd.com

For me, what makes Trenton Davis funny is not that he shares the name of the capital of New Jersey, but the fact that rather than just relying on jokes, he bases his material on his real life. These aren’t super long stories but rather vignettes into modern relationships and dealing with people in your life, not just strangers.

For example, he starts off his set talking about his 7-year-old daughter’s fixation with Beyonce, and an extremely funny bit about how she seems to know things beyond her age in her dreams. Of course, he also has much to say about his daughter’s mother, to whom he is no longer in an intimate relationship, which leaves many questions and doors either open or closed to others. There are a few bits of gender normative moments, but that fits into his brief forays concerning a couple of anti-Pakistani/Indian cabbies and anti-Jewish moments, though it feels like it’s more for the shock value than an actual belief. Davis doesn’t always use the shock value, so when he does, it is that much more effective.

While profanity laden in spots, it does not approach the Richard Pryor-Eddie Murphy-Bob Saget level of “fuck-poetry” as I call it. Here he uses the word as it was meant to be, as a manifestation of an emphasis or exclamation point.

While taking a strong African-American position on his life, it is still transferable and understandable to anyone else in the modern world. For example, his longest bit is about the control women have in the larger scope of defining a relationship, and about breaking up with partners.

His multiple codas deal with specific, or specific kinds of women, such as 20 year olds, Caitlyn Jenner, and especially relevant in today’s “Karen” world, racist white women. Personally, I would have liked to have heard him talk more on this last bit, but his observations are sharp, as with most of his material.

Davis is funny, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. This CD is a good example of a 45-minute set. Below is a clip of Davis that is not directly from this, but the material overlaps to give you some good idea.