Gary Gulman: In This Economy?

Gary Gulman is a Master of the Language. Gulman's unique delivery style and use of the English language makes his stand up special so unique. Gulman is an observational comic who has the ability to break down the most mundane of human interactions and make them hysterically funny. He is also very self- effacing- talking about how lazy and unambitious he is. One of the things that really makes him stand out among his contemporaries is that he has a distinct ability to use and parse words in a way that no other comedian in modern times does. He also has the ability to be, particularly, annoyed and pissed off and yet still make you feel like he is having a great time. I really recommend him.

Gary Gulman's stand-up performance is funny...no doubt about that. But why, oh why, did he deliver a rape joke early in his act? Several 'edgy' comedians think this is funny and in most cases I think they do outrageous and unfunny things like this because they are untalented jerks. But in Gulman's case, he IS quite funny and sadly resorted to a cheap passing rape remark. Considering he's Jewish, I wonder how me would have felt if another comedian had been telling anti-Semitic or Holocaust jokes? Apart from this one small comment, Gulman's act is generally family-friendly and clever. He makes fun of DVDs, Discman and other things that older folks (like me) will enjoy--the very young ones might just say 'what's a Discman?!'.

I wanted something light to watch. A friend posted a bit from this old TV special, it made me laugh, so I watched the show on Amazon. I was not familiar with Gary Gulman. I liked the show, especially the end bit about Jews playing basketball at the JCC. I love Gary's delivery style. Aside from having kind eyes, (as he does a bit about), he has a way of pausing before delivering his punchlines that I find charming and funny. Some of the material in this special is a bit dated, but it still had me laughing and loud and was a wonderful introduction to Gary's comedy. I plan to watch his more recent specials now and everything I can find with him in it.

First let me say i'm a HUGE comedy fan, Steven Wright, Demetri Martin, Mike Birbiglia, Mitch Hedberg, Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Winterman, Anthony Jeselnik- all comedy legends IMO. All have material that is rich in clever, unique jokes, all have confidence and perfect timing.

But this guy Gary Gulman is just not my cup of tea- as far as stand up goes.

He really forces his points of humour through his material. He is constantly whinging about world and social issues- almost as if this is his platform for releasing his personal problems with the world, or his world. Constant whinging about Bill Gates' and Donald Trumps fortunes, gets old very quickly. Punchlines and jokes that you can see a mile away, poor and not- so-confident delivery, almost like he is seeking approval from the audience before he delivers them.

I just cant stand when a stand up comic spends half the time whinging about serious issues (George Carlin suffers from this sometimes) rather than just focusing on making us laugh.

Comedy, not politics and religion please.