Priceless
His comedic songs are funny, but it's the
little things about seeing Stephen Lynch live that make him, well...
As
a twisted troubador, Stephen Lynch, seen in performance at the Borgata
in Atlantic City on September 1, has a rabid following that knows some
of his songs to the point where they’re shouting out requests until they
annoy the man.
But it doesn’t matter. Lynch cultivates the element of surprise by
playing up his rock style influences like Springsteen and Lynyrd Skynyrd
in the tunes of his comedic songs, strummed on a sole guitar, and as if
he was windmilling a power chord home, he drops the punchlines
offhandedly into the lyrics. And fittingly for Atlantic City, or “fake
Vegas” as Lynch called it at one point in the show, he started out the
show from among the audience a la Elvis in his Vegas gigs, although
Lynch got up to this stage as fast as he could and later called the idea
“retarded.”
Just a few of Lynch’s hits include, “Baby,” with its refrain, “Man, what
an ugly-ass baby!” and “Special” with the chorus “Special Ed, he’s not
right in the head…” And Lynch had some new creations to throw into the
mix like a profanity-ridden tribute to the Peanuts comic strip gang with
a loudly grunted “Peanuts!” as its chorus. Profanity-ridden here was not
a bad thing though, it added to a sardonic take on hapless Charlie Brown
(like “the only fucking bald boy in second grade.”)
Lynch dealt quite politely but firmly with several idiotic but bold
hecklers, including some who responded to his opening up a song about
Thomas Jefferson and interracial sex by shouting out stuff like “Don
Imus” and “Duke lacrosse.” Actually, he also took this on by saying
sarcastically, “I know there’s no racism in New Jersey … as I look out
at my entirely white audience.”
The second part of Lynch’s act strays away from this successful formula,
at times in priceless fashion and at other times a little too far. Aided
by accomplices Rob Cohen and David Josefsberg, Lynch presents a dirty
version of vaudeville shtick, and a bit of a rehash of some of the
world’s oldest jokes. This worked with a bawdy song about cunnilingus
called “Cream of Wife (In My Beard),” but not as well with some
seemingly unscripted banter between the trio as this part of the show
progressed.
Still, one has to give Lynch credit for doing more than just rehashing
his songs and trying a few different things as part of the show. His own
between-songs patter includes some material and quick bits that add to
the experience. Not all of the extras of Lynch’s show work, but enough
do to make it worth seeing and hearing him live, not just on DVD or CD. |