Reviews
Eugene Mirman
En Garde Society
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2006-05-14
When I received an email from the good people at Sub-Pop records informing me that I was being sent the new comedy album En Garde Society by Eugene Mirman, I will admit it made me a little nervous. I mean, at this point I am pretty well used to doing music reviews and I’d like to think I am decent at it, but this wasn’t going to be a music review. How in the hell do you review a comedy album anyhow? And who is Eugene Mirman? These were the thoughts going through my head. Although, I did take some comfort in knowing the source (Sub-Pop) and that the odds were pretty well in my favour that they weren’t about to release a comedy album on their beloved label if it wasn’t actually funny.
Then I read an endorsement from a man who I would consider to be one of the funniest comedians going today (David Cross) and started reading the press that came along with Eugene’s album, and I became downright excited. En Garde Society comes with a live recording of a Eugene comedy show on CD format and a bonus DVD which contains some skits performed by him. Be forewarned that I am rather certain Eugene is extremely high during the recording of the skits, and they are far more absurd than the album.
So now that the intro is out of the way again I am faced with the question: how does one review a comedy album? I can’t very well tell you the lyrics and break down the tracks like I normally would, but I can tell you that Eugene’s brand of comedy is what I would label as intellectually shocking. He doesn’t stand at the microphone and scream at you and demand your attention, and his jokes for the most part don’t cater to the lowest common denominator; yet, it isn’t like watching Dennis Miller either. En Garde Society can be found somewhere in between.
He’ll tell a story about two men talking about how they want to “stick their tube steaks into her wet oven” and yet the hilarity is in the absurdity of the situation as opposed to the terminology, see what I mean? My favourite bit has to do with something called Resolve which -- if I understand it right -- is basically the New Testament disguised as a teen magazine, obviously aimed at girls who would buy such a thing. (Warning: if you are Christian this probably isn’t going to be very amusing to you, but if you aren’t prepare to laugh hysterically while also thinking in your head “That’s so wrong!”) So you ever heard somebody use statistics as a way to say something really offensive while hiding behind the fact it’s a statistic? Well Resolve does this and it’s just awful, “Did you know? African American teens are 40 percent more likely to have sex than Caucasian teens. “Thanks Racist Bible!” says Eugene, who then goes on to say “I don’t know if a fact can be racist, but its weird to be like’ 85 percent of teens thinks Jews are genetically sneaky.’” Both Terri and I were losing it when Mirman dropped those lines.
Other fun topics and tracks that Eugene drops on his viewers are “Letters to Nouns” (which is exactly what it sounds like) and “Coupons for the Audience.” What other stand-up comedian gives you a free coupon for him to splooge on your back? That’s value!. He also does a hilarious bit which follows the format “You might be a democrat” and makes fun of Jeff Foxworthy’s atrocious “You might be a redneck routine” and Republicans at the same time -- simply beautiful if you ask me. All this and much much more! Order now and receive a spatula at no extra cost! Sorry, but I feel like I was almost writing an infomercial.
I have to talk about the DVD for a minute because, well, it is part of the package. I have to say that I made the mistake of putting in the DVD for Terri before playing her the stand-up CD, and I wouldn’t suggest doing this if you buy the album. It’s a bonus DVD, but the best material is on the album. Eugene basically puts himself in “identities” and performs brief skits, some of which are funny and others of which are just weird. Eugene as a professional sex therapist telling you that sometimes to just tell your girlfriend “You’re not fat, you’re pretty” and then talking about the uncomfortable situation when she asks you why you decided to word it that way in the first place is hilarious, because any boyfriend probably has been there before. However, Eugene with tinfoil on his head pretending to be from the future to present Eugene just missed its mark with me. It’s a nice value added but the real gems are on the album.
This isn’t conventional comedy and I, for one, am actually thankful for that. My biggest worry was that I wasn’t going to find it funny at all and then have to write a scathing review of it when maybe I just wasn’t getting the jokes. Personally, I expect big things from Eugene moving forward; he is only 30 and already has made a pretty notable impact on the comedy scene. So if you like your comedy to push boundaries but do so in an intellectual way and are fans of comedians like David Cross, Lewis Black, and Mitch Hedberg, I would recommend getting your hands on En Garde Society -- just don’t watch the DVD first.
Score: 7.7
- Dan