I know Aisha Tyler from 24, her historic turn as "first black person ever" on the show Friends and the many "so-so" films that she has done but I didn't realise that she was a comedian until recently. I managed to cop this on DVD region 1 because I was curious to see what she could do. Things looked good from the very start as the film opens with a very clever and funny musical bit that is essentially about Aisha having no ass to speak of (none). This funny self-depreciation is the foundation for the rest of the show as it is the thread that runs through almost all of the material – Aisha as a geek, Aisha talking like a white person, Aisha being bad with drink and so on.
She covers a lot of ground in the show (mostly down to how quickly she speaks) and one cannot fault her for her energy levels while on stage but it does at times grate. At her best she is laying out these images and stories in a way that is totally her and fits with the geeky character that she presents herself as. On top of this she does have a level of crudity that she can get away with and indeed helps bring some good laughs. However she can (and does) go too far at times and ends up overacting on stage really badly. Some of these are genuinely funny and are well placed but too often they are just silly because she is overdoing a joke that is not funny enough to cope with it. The "waxing cauldron" is one example where her overacting is taken a little further than it can stand.
Mostly though I enjoyed her having her own voice. She is crude but she never comes over like she is trying to make herself the "black/female" version of somebody. Of course she will get these comparisons but I enjoyed her having her own voice and material. I guess she will always between the "geeky white black woman" material and "crude, shouting material" but the former worked better for me than the latter. This is not perfect by any means and it doesn't deserve to be mentioned alongside the "great" stand-up shows but it is certainly enjoyable and funny without totally killing it. More than good enough for me to look out for more of this from Tyler.
