Punchline Magazine » Reviews

Christopher Titus: Neverlution

John Delery — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:01:10 +0000

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…auditioning for another sequel to Jackass: Yup, that about summarizes the thesis of Neverlution, Christopher Titus’ latest riotous eruption from Comedy Central Records (available on June 28). The companion television special premieres July 3 at 9 p.m. EST on Comedy Central. For 105 hypnotic [...]

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Norm Macdonald: Me Doing Standup

John Delery — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:42:19 +0000

Only a certain kind of comic can adventurously open his set with a death riff. For lack of a better word (because there is no other word, until now), we will call this sort of confidently kooky comedian: grimsical. Yeah, yeah: half grim, half whimsical. Norm Macdonald acts grimsical much of the time on Me Doing Standup, [...]

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Jen Kirkman: Hail To The Freaks

Carrie Andersen — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 01:41:28 +0000

I first became acquainted with Jen Kirkman’s work through the epic Funny or Die web series Drunk History, where a subject would drink insane amounts of alcohol before sharing a history lesson that would later be acted out verbatim. While Michael Cera’s portrayal of Alexander Hamilton will always hold a special place in my heart, Kirkman’s [...]

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Andrew Norelli: Cut Above Stupid

John Delery — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:09:56 +0000

If Andrew Norelli raced for a living, he’d drive a dragster instead of an Indy car. Hey, he prefers straight lines to curves. He seldom veers off the worn but proven path to laughs, but the skill to take the audience on an amusing ride from Point A to Point B makes Norelli an interesting [...]

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David Huntsberger: Humanitis

Carrie Andersen — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:46:49 +0000

The best comedy albums usually offer us equal parts “holy shit” moments of recognition, “oh my fuck” moments — where the comic plants an image in your head you never, ever wanted to see — and of course, huge laughs. David Huntsberger’s well written and structurally sound album Humanitis offers the former two assets in surplus [...]

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Don Jamieson: Live and Hilarious

Emma Kat Richardson — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:45:39 +0000

Seven tracks into Don Jamieson’s raucous and obscene stand-up album, Live and Hilarious, there’s an unfortunately timed bit called, “Obama, Osama, Airport Security,” in which Jamieson asserts that Obama isn’t doing enough to find OBL and end the war on terror. The inclusion of the track, though of course unintentional, renders the album almost instantly dated; [...]

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Amy Schumer: Cutting

Jeff Havens — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:28:25 +0000

Amy Schumer is the kind of woman who would probably smile and maybe give you a kiss on the cheek right before kicking you in the nuts. Then she’d apologize and buy you a drink, but it wouldn’t be an expensive drink, and she wouldn’t really be sorry. That’s the flavor of Schumer’s debut album Cutting, [...]

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Andy Ritchie: King Ding-A-Ling

John Delery — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:02:58 +0000

As if Andy Ritchie were the Mary Lou Retton of comedy, he charges down the runway, leaps headfirst into his act, and sticks the landing on the opening joke of King Ding-A-Ling, his debut CD on Stand Up! Records. He certainly does not go splat after unexpectedly and brilliantly filleting a ’60s sacred cow, the usually [...]

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Alex Koll: Wizard Hello

Carrie Andersen — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:53:14 +0000

On his debut album, Wizard Hello, comedian Alex Koll immediately pulls the audience into his mystical world, presenting himself as a wizard (of course) and describing the ins-and-outs of “wizard comedy,” which apparently involves telling jokes to magical crystals. From there, Koll takes us on a tour of the most surreal nooks of his imagination, [...]

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Comedians You Should Know (the album)

John Delery — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:02:55 +0000

Comedians crave the spotlight the way plants covet sunlight. So Wednesdays at Timothy O’Toole’s in Chicago, their lodge of sorts, Marty DeRosa, Danny Kallas, Joe Kilgallon, Mike Lebovitz, Drew Michael and Michael Sanchez reconvene their six-member comedy club: Comedians You Should Know. As if on a dimmer switch, the six sets on Comedians You Should Know [...]

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Louis Katz: If These Balls Could Talk

Jeff Havens — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:01:31 +0000

Halfway through If These Balls Could Talk (which, incidentally, is probably the most aptly-titled comedy album of the year), Louis Katz offers an apology: “I’m sorry I talk about sex so much.” It is a lie. He is not sorry, not even slightly. And if you’re in the mood for a [...]

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Dylan Brody: A Twist of Wit

Jeff Havens — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:50:24 +0000

It’s not every comedy album that opens with an elaborate palindrome. But then, Dylan Brody is not everybody’s comedian. His third album, A Twist of the Wit, is a dense journey into the mind of self-loathing neurotic (his words, not mine) who knows more words than almost everyone and who occasionally pretends not [...]

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Melinda Hill: The Accidental Bisexual

Emma Kat Richardson — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:40:54 +0000

Melinda Hill’s new comedy album, The Accidental Bisexual, fulfills every wonderful thing we’ve come to expect from one of Maria Bamford’s best friends. All meek wit and doe-eyed innocence, with several splashes of deliciously sinful sarcasm in between, Hill’s self-deprecating and deeply personal authenticity ring particularly true with each of the album’s eight tracks – [...]

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Lee Camp: Chaos For The Weary

John Delery — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:40:18 +0000

As perceptive and profane and profound as Lee Camp can be, he really does not represent a generation of new comic as much as the regeneration of an old one: George Carlin. Lucky him! Lucky us! His antic and intensely interesting new CD from Stand Up! Records, Chaos for the Weary (available Friday), even comes with [...]

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Jesse Joyce: Pro Joyce

Jeff Havens — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:52:50 +0000

Jesse Joyce doesn’t do cocaine. It’s not his fault that he has ‘a look and demeanor that seems to imply I do a lot of blow.’ But his jittery, rapid-fire delivery, coupled with a keen pair of ‘enormous coke eyes,’ helps Joyce deliver big on his debut album, Pro Joyce. Joyce, a well-established roast [...]

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Auggie Smith: Smell The Thunder

John Delery — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:02:29 +0000

Luckily, the armistice in the war of words these days muzzles our combative Congress, not comedians. Even luckier for us humor-hungry civilians, our irascible representatives have yet to enact fun-control laws, thereby not depriving the rabble of Auggie Smith and other amusing agitators like him. From his post onstage, Smith, dedicated protector of our unalienable rights [...]

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Brian Scott McFadden: What Women Want

Dylan P. Gadino — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:36:48 +0000

A regular, and favorite of the New York City comedy circuit, comedian and actor Brian Scott McFadden has already proven himself a versatile comedic performer onstage and on television, with appearances on Letterman and Ferguson. He’s even an accomplished stage actor – having played Hamlet in New York – and has also built a reputation [...]

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Nick Griffin: Bring Out The Monkey

Punchline Magazine — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 03:09:45 +0000

By DNA It must be lonely inside Nick Griffin’s head—one can easily envision his gray matter taking the form of a desolate hotel room scattered with fast food wrappers, empty bottles of booze and dog-eared copies of Playboy; then there’s the flickering television screen. Lucky for us, Griffin has devoted his life to stand-up and so we [...]

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Gary Gulman: All I Want for Chanukah is Christmas

Heather Height — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:42:02 +0000

Nothing harkens the heart to Christmas like colorful lights, Carolers and a Jewish child’s seething jealousy. When Gary Gulman was asked, “What do you want for Chanukah?” He answered, “Christmas!” Lucky for the rest of the world, that childhood longing was scarring enough to spawn a comedy career and the recording of the [...]

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Kelly Meyersfield: Aural Sex

Jesse Raub — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:02:35 +0000

Going blue is a double-edged sword. A filthy word can take a joke into unexpected territory and pull huge laughs. But dirty for dirty’s sake gets tiring quickly. So while, we’d love to praise Kelly Meyersfield’s new musical comedy album Aural Sex as a start to finish laugh riot, it’s best to take it in [...]

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