A Comic Who Actually Is Funny

I spend a great deal of time lecturing my readers to the point of boredom about why some people are not-funny. Maybe it's time to mention someone who is.

If you're watching Last Comic Standing, you know the funniest man in the competition was actually denied a slot on the show. He was so obviously the top talent in the competition that when he was denied a slot on the show, celebrity "judges" (turns out they weren't judging anything-- it was a rigged job) walked off the stage while on camera and personally apologized to the man, and also chewed out the producers.

The guy's name is Dan Naturman. He's hysterical. He's got this bizarre throwback cadence -- he sounds a little like a 1940's radio announcer -- and he's got the jokes along with the delivery.

As an added bonus: Although so much of his statement was bleeped out for profanity that I can't absolutely swear what the man said, I think he called Michael Moore's movie an absolute pack of bullshit and lies on tonight's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.

His act is non-political, so I had no idea what his politics were before deciding he was hugely talented. To tell you the truth, I'm still not sure what the hell his politics are; he could be very liberal, but conservative on the question of Iraq. Or maybe he just hates Michael Moore. Or maybe I misunderstood what he was saying about Moore entirely (although Colin Quinn seemed to take it as a dig; he enjoyed the remark, whatever it was).

Whether he's liberal or conservative, he's funny as hell, and he got screwed out of his rightful place on Last Comic Standing as the comedian to beat. So, if you happen to notice the guy's name at your local comedy club, check him out. I can say with a high degree of confidence you'll laugh yourselves silly.

A little bit of his act can be found here; (real audio, broadband; for lowband, check his site.) It's fairly work safe; it's an appearance from Conan O'Brien, so there's no cursing or terribly objectionable material. But the end of his bit is about prison rape; his main point is that he doesn't fear the actual sex so much as the cuddling, which I think is an interesting observation.

Update: If you're in New York and a nightowl, he's appearing at the Comedy Cellar on MacDougal Street in the 11:00 pm set Wednesday night (tonight), which means he might not get on until 1:00 am.

Update: Apparently he was plugging an anti-Moore website called MooreLies. The bleeping was probably not for profanity, then, but Comedy Central censors bleeping out the "www" and "dot com" to avoid giving a free commercial plug.

posted by Ace at 02:30 AM

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