COMEDY. colin quinn: long story short

the latest stand up special from colin quinn takes a very different approach to the old 'stand there and tell jokes' formula that most comedians use. instead of just stories and jokes following no particular pattern, quinn tackles one subject matter for the whole duration of his show. granted, the topic is pretty big: the history of the world! this structure is really well done as quinn, with the assistance of photos and animation on the screen behind him, goes through all of recorded history and takes a critical look at whats gone wrong and whats gone right, all the while adding his own hilarious two cents! he starts with cave men, jumps to the greek and roman empires, then in to christendom, finally traveling around the world visiting each continent and giving his perspective on their respective histories. quinn does a fantastic job of playing the history teacher- in fact, if it wernt for all the bad language, this thing could almost be shown in schools! my only real experience with quinn was his role as saturday night live's weekend update anchor, and i was very pleasantly surprised at how funny and clever he really is! and he's pretty good at accents from around the world too! all in all this is a pretty impressive stand-up show, i enjoyed it so much that i plan to watch it again soon!

COMEDY. ricky gervais

ricky gervais is a really funny guy. in this special he goes all to the wall and rips apart americans and all the stupid things we do. he doesnt just give us a go, but he turns it back on himself quite often. pretty funny, but nothing very memorable. he can tell a great story, but i think his stuff is better when its situational, like in the british 'the office', or his other show, 'extras'.

COMEDY. nick swardson

recently i heard a really funny clip from this guy on a mix cd. he had this funny bit about how he has started saying 'party' all the time. it became his response whenever someone would ask him something. 'hey, want to go to the club?' 'party'. diana and i really thought it was hilarious. she didnt know who the comedian was, but i recognized his voice from different movies ive seen him in. i didnt know his name, but i new he was one of the guys who was always hanging around david spade (who i think is hilarious).

we happened to be wandering around target when i noticed that they had his comedy cd. it was only ten bucks, and included his cd and a dvd of some of his comedy central specials. so, we figured we would give it a try.

turns out, hes not really very funny. his 'party' bit is his best. the rest of the cd is quite lame. it even includes a couple 'skits', which is so old school. most of his humor revolves around fart jokes and dirty stuff thats not very funny. i guess i could see this appealing to 13 year old boys, but we were sorely disappointed. there are some funny observations on old people near the end, but five minutes of good jokes are not worth the fifty five minutes it takes to get to it.

COMEDY. daniel tosh

this guy had a special on comedy central a couple weeks ago. i had never heard of him before that, but i tivod it and gave it a shot. and to my surprise, this guy is hilarious!

the comedians i really like are brian regan, mitch hedberg, and dane cook. i have been looking for some more quality stuff lately. i often listen to comedy cds when i drive to or back from michigan. sometimes i need something that will keep me awake.

so, i went down to circuit city and picked up a cd/dvd of this daniel tosh fellow. (as listed before, i really enjoy brian regan. one of the reasons for that is because he can be so funny with out being dirty. well, daniel tosh is about the opposite of that...) his style of comedy is very strange. like mitch, he doesnt bother with segueing from one joke to the next, he just goes through them like hes writing a list. he also has a way of making a very broad joke, and then continuing the punchline further and further into obscurity. let me give you an example: one of his jokes starts with talking about day light savings, and ends with shopping for socket covers at target. and before he gets to that last one, he has also referenced going to a bar, a pterodactyl, and brushed steel picture frames.

strange. but funny.