Two Comedy Reviews: Paul Conyers and Tony B

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2019

Images from the Internet

What follows are two comedy digital releases. The opening bits of both comedians are linked below both reviews.

Tony B

Day Drinker

Uproar Entertainment

www.uproarcomedycd.com

www.facebook.com/UproarComedy

Tony B is a self-professed 38-year-old half-Italian, half-Persian. His specialty seems to be discussing bar culture and its denizens. It is not all that this release is about, but enough of it that it could have alternatively been titled just that.

Day drinking…I can’t relate. I have hung out at bars to hear live music, but even then, well, nah, which made it a bit difficult for me to identify and get those a-ha moments. As a comedian, of course, who would perform in comedy clubs across the US, Tony would be more familiar with the environs. And at least the first half of the album is about just that.

Even other topics are viewed through this lens, and some of it is actually quite accurate (from what I understand). While it doesn’t pander to that audience, it certainly acknowledges it. For example, when he talks about aging, he weighs in on choosing either food or women.

This leads to the most solid section of this half, where Tony posits the attitudes of women over 30 out with friends vs. their social media content, and wiped-out married men in the same situation. This was both funny and pithy at the same time, as he presents some personal examples that he has seen, including while telling these very jokes.

When he breaks out of the barroom for a few minutes, he talks about why he loves dogs over kids, which may make you smile. Though when he told a story that substituted the term “Mildred” over the f-word/gay slur, which he seemed to like even though it was directed at him, I understood what he meant, but wasn’t impressed.

Other topics did, however, touch the a-ha funny bone, such as discussing the infamously Trump-level University of Phoenix, and especially his piece about the attitudes of cabbies and Ubers (not that it matters, but I still use cabs; keep the money local, I say). Amusingly enough, this brings us back to the bar culture tale of Tony getting a DUI in college, a story reminiscent of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” soliloquy.

Overall, the tone of the release is adult without being vulgar (I can’t recall a single cuss word). I did enjoy it. And appreciating the bar culture? Must be nice.

Paul Conyers

Above the Fray

Uproar Entertainment

www.uproarcomedycd.com

www.facebook.com/UproarComedy

Paul Conyers announces right off the bat that he’s 6’7” tall. Man, that’s a Joey Ramone-level of height. And this has nuthin’ ta do with nuthin’, but he was born in 1985, ten years after the first time I saw the Ramones play. A coincidence? Irrelevant, yes, I know.

Paul’s shtick (not the Biblical Paul) is to jump on PC terms and twist them around, playing with them like a cat with a toy. Be it short people (“anyone under 5’11’’, he jokes), Feminism and gender politics, woke culture, or veganism, these are just some of the topics just towards the beginning bits.

Whether you are offended by the poking or not, know that this is more jab in the ribs than lambasting, in most cases. He tends to touch on the topics rather than hounding them for any extended length of time. He doesn’t go too deep on any subject, but grazes over them like a surfer shooting the tube.

From the Bay area, Paul likes to tell a lot of stories about places, such as California and strip clubs (discussing “tits” – his word – that can-and-did break a man’s nose), but he also discusses  family, such as his sister and fiancé.

Paul relies a bit too much on non-PC language just for the shock value. He’s not like a shock-jock, but he does not hesitate to use words that have, over time, become dog whistles for the Right, and trigger words for the Left. Do I think he’s Right leaning? No, I genuinely believe he is just trying to get a laugh and a reaction. Despite that, he doesn’t rise (fall?) to the level of a Sam Kinison or Andrew Dice Clay, though there is that touch of using uncomfortable words and ideas that are meant to trigger.

What I like most about Paul is that he tells stories and describes events, and builds his jokes from those, rather than just relying on negative one-liners. I definitely got a few laughs out of this collection.

CD Review: Gallagher: I Am Who I Pretend to Be

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2014
Images from the Internet

 

Gallagher: I Am Who I Pretend to Be
Produced by David Drozen
Uproar Entertainment
70 minutes, 2014
www.uproarcomedycd.com   
www.mvdvisual.com

In case you are wondering who (Leo) Gallagher is, I don’t think it would be an understatement to say he was as influential in the stand-up world as Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams. Arguably, you could even add George Carlin. Was he as funny as them? Well, that’s a matter of the style of humor you enjoy, but it was Gallagher that almost single-handedly brought the stand-up series of specials to cable television, 14 shows over the years that had millions of viewers each. Some say the existence of the Comedy Channel in some part was created due to Gallagher’s on-air popularity.

I have to say, I found him extremely funny. I viewed probably about 5 of those specials, and saw him a number of times on the likes of Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. He was outrageous without being overly shocking (profanity is in his cable shows, but not his mainstream presentations). He had a unique style, using his own creative props that were inventive on the level of engineering, and unlike some other prop comics like, say, Carrot Top, Gallagher was not manic (though he screamed a lot) and was actually enjoyable.

From North Carolina, he had a bit of a twang and a unique way of phrasing things, often using some colloquialisms, such as saying “them people.” Considering how much of the use of language a key part of his act is, I’m not sure if this was an in-bred way of patter, or was part of his stage persona. I don’t ever remember seeing him talk off the stage.

The reason I use past tense in this piece is because this show is part of Gallagher’s retirement tour. After serious health issues, he has decided to professionally call it quits.

When the CD starts, honestly, it doesn’t sound like him. He has a particular way to talking and it takes a while before I can “recognize” his voice. But that’s okay. I also wondered about a vocal-only recording, because he usually is quite visual, including using a sledge hammer on a watermelon (yeah, that’s the guy). That is probably why he has all these television shows and only one other vocal recording from the beginning of his career.

One of the things that appeals to me about Gallagher is the way he has a slight twisted way of looking at life that seems to make sense until you really think about it. For example, he often posits (including here) that they ought to give deaf people houses by the airport. Or that that they should make Jehovah Witnesses mail carriers because they’re going to come to your door anyway (not included). Illogical logic?

In the hour-plus of this CD, I did notice something that I had not realized before, but has been a consistent theme of his act, and that is he promotes cultural gender-normative stereotypes. Sort of a “You know what you guys do?” “You know what you ‘girls’ do?” Then comes out the controlling image of women who love to go shopping, and men who are slackers around the house who don’t do much tidying, and how both drive each other crazy. He’s been focusing in on these for thirty years now, and honestly, the timer is up on it. It’s a dated notion that is okay to acknowledge that times have changed. More men work around the house, and more women are in the workforce. That being said, I thought the line about a version of Playboy for married men that has the same centerfold model in each issue was pretty funny. Okay, I’m done with that cultural rant.

Gallagher has always been a bit of an American jingoist, but tends not to be overly obnoxious about it, like Ted Nugent, for example. He loves “Amurrka” (as he pronounces it) and hates to see foreign interests changing the landscape, as it were. Is his material racist? Well, there is definitely singling out some cultures, such as Mexicanos, but it’s not nasty any more than his pointing out gender norms. I did cringe, however, the one time when he used the expression “that is so gay.”

Once you get beyond those, and he finally gets fired up, as he does here, his two strong suits come out. The first one is pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of our culture, and how we look at things. He would make a powerful General Semanticist. It could be how we may be viewed by aliens (stating how from space telescopes we have to look up to the stars find any kind of intelligence, rather than back at Earth), weirdness about how people view the Bible, and how crazy is our justice system. His analysis using a spork (spoon-fork a la KFC) as a springboard is quite smart.

Then his second strong point comes out that is my favorite, which is Carlin-esque in how he points out the randomness of grammar and language. In this particular case he looks at the “enemy” of the English language, the French, and how their mother tongue has influenced us in nearly a poetic rant.

The bonus track, “Words of Wisdom,” is a bit I’ve heard before, and in fact there is a smattering of repeating here and there (this is true of many comics, including Robin Williams, with his Mr. Happy bits).

Yeah, he’s still sharp and witty, and considering his heart situation, he’s definitely still Gallagher. That’s something that’s worth a listen.

 

Bonus video from the ‘80s (unrelated to this CD):