Working For The Weekend

Two new stand-up albums show contrasts in quality; Donnelly scores while Corrao falls short

On her debut stand-up album, “Hot Date,” released digitally by the independent label Little Lamb Recordings, Katina Corrao does have a fully realized comic persona. The problem is she doesn’t serve herself very well with a lot of hacky material that she doesn’t infuse with a lot of confidence, either.

For any stand-up’s debut album, they should be at a level deserving of that kind of showcase and distribution, even if it doesn’t have Comedy Central or HBO marketing muscle behind it. The set captured on “Hot Date” doesn’t even include much in the way of enthusiastic audience response to the material.

There are one or two moments of promise here, however. Corrao admits her cluelessness about the audition process for acting roles, in a piece where she sings a goofy song about mosquitoes that she was using for try-outs. And she does relate how her older family members think her current vocation is actually being a clown, make-up and all.

Unfortunately, there’s just not enough here to recommend Corrao’s album. In contrast, a new Comedy Central digital release, “Manual Labor Face,” by stand-up comic Sean Donnelly, showcases his material at a point where he’s obviously more ready for the spotlight. His material is strong, he shows more command of timing and delivery, and he’s getting bigger reactions from the audience that you can hear.

While Donnelly does certainly have room to grow – he’s not yet close to shattering one’s expectations for stand-up, the way Louis CK has done – but he channels enough observation ability into the material to make it unique in its own way.