20 Year Itch
Steven Wright returns with a new comedy album
after a long time off the record.
After
a long absence, influential stand-up comedian Steven Wright has returned
in recent years with more prominent live appearances, and now a new CD,
“I Still Have A Pony,” in stores September 25.
The title is a reference to his 1980s album, “I Have A Pony.” The
sequel, 20 years in coming, is actually very similar in material to the
DVD that Wright released earlier this year, “When The Leaves Blow Away.”
When similar material is released in different formats, it does deserve
a warning to fans, but Wright’s work is so unique in its elliptical path
to punch lines that the CD is still worth getting -- if you don’t
already have the DVD.
Everything Wright does seems like one-liners, but it’s deceptive,
because they all come with his brand of twisted logic. To quote anything
on the album would spoil the surprise too much. So much of his material
also wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t coming with his deadpan delivery.
But take this one little bit:
“I was at my uncle’s funeral and I was looking at the coffin and
thinking about my flashlight and the batteries in my flashlight and I
told my aunt, ‘Maybe he’s not dead, he’s just in the wrong way.’”
Wright’s genius is spinning the little pieces of life on their head, and
this latest album is even more skewed than he’s been before on record
and on video or TV specials. Age has taken him to an even more remote
plane, and we’re just trying to catch up. |