There’s a distinct category of things that I rarely mention on this blog because their consistent greatness is so generally accepted, it’s a waste of time to even bother recommending them or reminding people they exist — The Daily Show, Colbert, The Onion and the Onion News Network, 30 Rock, A Dog Named Christmas — and if there are actually any people out there reading BWE.tv constantly but who don’t know what The Daily Show is, then, well, I’m flattered, but you’re also an idiot.
Paul F. Tompkins belongs in this category. When he comes to your city to do standup, you should go see him. If you live in Los Angeles, you should go see him often. And whenever he releases a new standup cd, as he did this past week (only his second such album), you should buy it.
Freakwharf — available at Amazon and iTunes — is, like Tompkins’ first album Impersonal, essentially a 50+ minute greatest hits pulled from Tompkins’ many years worth of A-material mixed with substantial wiggle room for crowd interaction and improvisation. Like the previous cd, every one of Tompkins’ bits is likely to elicit either an immediate “Yes! I’ve always thought that” recognition (albeit without the audience-pandering aspect too often associated with the lame-sounding “observational humor” stigma), or a response of “Why should I care about this?” inevitably followed, five minutes later, with “I was stupid for wondering how that would become funny.”
Tompkins’ jokes-per-setup ratio is unreal, the material is amazingly accessible and free of alt-comedy “I have to do this weird thing!” self-awareness, and really, how many comedy albums are you gonna shell out for in a given year? Five hundred, tops? You probably make more than $5000 a year.
Also, not sure if it’s still necessary to point out, but for the record, this endorsement has nothing to do with Tompkins’ BWE involvement; like I’ve said countless times before, Vh1 never tells us what to write about, nor are they aware that we exist and are still getting paid by them (not to blow our cover, but Michelle and I skim from the padded, unmonitored Viacom “Applied Sciences” budget). Also we’re both super heroes. So, trust me on this one.
