Albany
The Palace Theatre hosted about 4,500 people in two days of comedy, and it’s hard to imagine a more varied pair of evenings within the same artistic discipline.
If Thursday night’s show by the Trailer Park Boys was a low-low-brow celebration of the drunken and the profane, Friday’s strong set by Brian Regan was a demonstration that a comic can work clean and still be insightful and funny. It’s a testament to Regan’s honed skills and easy rapport with the audience that he can botch a joke, mock himself for it and end up with even more laughs than if he’d told the joke correctly in the first place.
He said, “I think I did this bit already — OK — I was on this — um — what’s the next joke?”
Regan’s occasional flubs with what seemed like newer material were noticeable because of how smooth and polished he is most of the time. He offered some seasonal thoughts, including about family newsletters, and realizations he’s come to now that he, at 55, is well into middle age.
“The older you get, the earlier you get to New Year’s Eve parties,” he said, returning later to the party theme with a consideration of social awkwardness, a question about how men relate to one another (preferred activities seem to involve sports or killing things), dancing and the complexity of shopping (“All I want is one cash register where I can buy something and leave”).
Joe Bolster, a frequent opener for Regan, started with a half-hour set that was drier than the headliner’s act but in its own way quite funny. Detailing his battle with thyroid cancer, Bolster said, “My scar is visible on Google Earth” and later, in a quip about selling merchandise after the show, said, “Do not feel obligated to buy (something) just because I’m battling cancer.” Bolster also joked about going to the movies with kids (“Daddy takes a $12 nap in 3D”).
One of his mid-set bits drew among Bolster’s biggest laughs of the evening. Lamenting about being dragged around to look at paintings and sculptures while on vacation, he observed, “Nothing is more exhausting than an art museum.”
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Review
Brian Regan with Joe Bolster
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Palace Theatre, 19 Clinton Ave., Albany
Length: Regan, 75 minutes; Bolster, 30 minutes
The crowd: About 2,100
Article source: http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/Who-knew-Clean-comedy-bits-funny-5064847.php