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REVIEW: David Cross @ Newmark Theatre (Portland, OR – 9/25/09)

26th Sep 09 (Sat) 5 comments

David Cross is on a little fall tour to promote his new book, I Drink For a Reason.  You may know him from Mr Show with Bob & David, or as Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development (i.e.- the best television show of all-time), or his stand-up specials, or a glut of parts in television and movies.

(David Cross as Tobias Fünke was one of the best character pieces with laugh-out-loud antics in about every moment he was on screen).

I was just at the Newmark for another comedian, Patton Oswalt.  Unlike the Patton show, though, this show wasn’t general admission.  Yay!  We got to our seats ( fairly close up).  The show began not too long after.

The opener was Todd Glass.  He only did about 15 minutes, but was pretty damn funny.  He jumped around a lot in material, but I guess with only 15 minutes, you have to get as much in as possible.

David came out around 8:45pm and started off with a song about tearing Portland a new asshole that morphed into the jokes he was going to tell us, which wouldn’t involve any cosmonaut jokes… which, of course, ended with a cosmonaut joke.

David, of course, touched on religion, politics, and drugs.  My favorite bits were scattered all about.  His mom making yogurt… from yogurt was pretty funny.  The bit on the horror porn was hilarious.  He did make a good point – what’s the reason for horror porn?  To scare the cum out of you?

One of the better parts of the night was when he called out a sign language guy for signing words that didn’t exist.  The “deaf guy interloper” was part of the show, a friend of David’s; however at first, the audience didn’t know.  When David said “Gallileo,” the guy signed the motions for looking through a looking glass.  It looked so odd that David said it again about 3 times… then David started saying words like “ridonkulous” to see what the sign language would be.  It all ended with David calling him out and telling him to leave (“deaf guy” showed up later as a “live blogger interloper” during the set).

The bit about Scientology and Mormonism was also pretty funny.  We’ll see how that goes next week in Salt Lake City. :)  Some of his other humor was a little bit over the line (re: hassidic jews, etc), but that’s what you get with David Cross.  He ended with a joke on crazy things to buy (i.e.- SkyMall crap).  The  focus on the “time mug” was pretty hilarious.

After 90 quality minutes David left the stage… but then came back out shortly for a quick movie encore… he played 3 and a half minutes (all that was legally allowed) of his upcoming UK television series directed by Spike Jonze, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.  It looks pretty damn brilliant.  Anytime you have Spike Jonze involved, it’s got good potential.  Arrested Development alum Will Arnett was also in it.  We’ll likely not get it on this sided of the pond, until it hits DVD.

The Appropriate Linkage:

~Dan – np: Faith No More – The Real Thing

David Cross’s Tour Dates

September 2009
24 & 25 – Portland, Ore. @ The Newmark Theatre
27 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Vancouver Comedy Festival
28 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ In The Venue
29 – Denver, Colo. @ Paramount Theatre
30 – Kansas City, Mo. @ Midland Theatre

October 2009
2 – Toronto, Ontario @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
3 – Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Riverside Theatre
4 – Chicago, Ill. @ Congress Theatre
5 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ State Theatre
7 – Durham, N.C. @ Carolina Theatre of Durham
9 – Munhall, Pa. @ Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead
10 – Morgantown, W.V. @ University of West Virginia
11 – Columbus, Ohio @ Capitol Theatre
13 – Ann Arbor, Mich. @ Michigan Theatre
14 – Austin, Texas @ Paramount Theater
16 – Dallas, Texas @ Lakewood Theater
17 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Tabernacle
19 – Boston, Mass. @ Wilbur Theater
20 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Merriam Theater
21 – Washington, D.C. @ Warner Theater
Categories: Humor Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

REVIEW: Flight of the Conchords @ the Schnitzer (Portland, OR – 5/14/09)

15th May 09 (Fri) 5 comments

Well, let’s just say… this show was mutha’uckin’ AWESOME!!!

Before the show, there was a spot-on Murray look-a-like in the crowd.  A little bit younger looking, but definitely pretty damn close.  At around 7:45pm, the lights dimmed and what sounded like Jemaine (from FOTC) announced the opener.  Arj Barker, who plays Dave on HBO’s Flight of the Conchords show, came out and did a hilarious 30-minute stand-up routine.  Very witty humor.  He’s got a Comedy Central special coming soon, plus he’ll be doing his own solo tour later in the year.  Should be fun… I’d definitely recommend Arj, and if he comes near me again (Eugene, please?), I’ll be there.

Arj introduced Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie immediately after his set, and they came out swinging right away in their robot costumes.  To which they immediately broke into a song from their 2nd season, “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor.”  They never got back into their robot costumes again, which was… well… unfortunate.  Great show though.  They also had a cellist, Nigel, who was “New Zealand’s symphony orchestra.”  Due to budget cuts, Nigel is the entire NZ symphony orchestra. :)  Here’s what they played…

Setlist: (YT: YouTube video from the HBO show)

  • Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor (YT)
  • Hurt Feelings (YT) (*a fave of the night*)
  • The Ballad of Stana
  • The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room) (YT) (*a fave of the night*)
  • Carol Brown (Stick Around)
  • Jenny
  • Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros (YT) (*a fave of the night*)
  • I’m Not Crying (YT)
  • Freebird (upon request, but we think it was a planted request… Bret moved over to drums)
  • Mutha’uckas (YT) (Bret continuing on drums – *a fave of the night*)
  • Business Time (YT) (*a fave of the night*)
  • Think About It (Think, Think About It) (YT)
  • Lazy Eye
  • Sugalumps (YT)
  • Encore: Albi the Racist Dragon (YT)
  • Bus Driver’s Song
  • Bowie (YT)

The only real disappointment was the obvious lack of “Robot Song (The Humans Are Dead)” (YT).  “Foux Da Fa Fa” (YT), “If You’re Into It” (YT), and “Ladies of the World” (YT) would have been fun, too.  They show was really great, though.  They played and talked and talked and played for an hour and 45 minutes.  Really funny, and I liked most of the new songs… I’m looking forward to the 2nd season when it comes out on DVD (as I don’t have HBO).  I wasn’t able to take any photos due to the venue’s rules.  Here is one from SPIN‘s Miami review (more further down in the links):

The Appropriate Linkage:

~Dan – np: Wynton Marsalis – He and She

Categories: Concert Photos, Hip-hop, Humor, Indie Rock, Movies & Television, Rock & Pop, Singer-Songwriter Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,