Brightest Young Things

Neil Hamburger’s stop in DC Sunday night was early on a month and a half trek with bands like Daquiri and sometimes Puscifer, two acts with tongue firmly planted in cheek (and perhaps elsewhere for those familiar with Puscifer,) that fit hand in glove with Hamburger’s absurdist quips. Eschewing mainstream comedy clubs, he’s playing venues that champion the independent and alternative music scene from Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory to Asbury Park’s Asbury Lanes and of course the Black Cat. Not surprising, as Hamburger creator Gregg Turkington ran Amarillo Records for years, created his own post-punk and avant-garde recordings, and releases his Hamburger records on seminal indie label Drag City. In Neil Hamburger, Turkington has created a persona rooted in Kaufman’s Tony Clifton, boisterous and bent on ripping through A to D-list celebrities of Page 6 and US Weekly with vitriolic barbs. He’s been at this character for more than a decade and pals around with Tom Green, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Free Radio and Tenacious D, so I figured the audience would be reminiscent of the recent Black Cat Bentzen Ball sets; fans who like their comedy and their music a little less Dane Cook and a little more Todd Barry.

I arrived at the club too late to check out Daiquiri but just in time for Neil as a relatively small but eager audience gave an ovation to something you might see in old Las Vegas performing at 4am over the breakfast buffet. With a greasy, unwashed combover, creepy mini-ponytail, disheveled tuxedo and hubble-telescope glasses, Neil opened with an upbeat, loungey number about 3 piece chicken dinners before segueing seamlessly into… stillborns and the Osmond Family? From here on out, Neil had the crowd eating out of his phlegm soaked hand, coughing and spitting traditional joke structures from “What do you get when you cross…” to “Why did the chicken cross the road…” with punchlines so blue that Sarah Silverman might blush. The crowd participated fully, answering WHY or WHAT as Hamburger waxed dermatologic over Anthony Keidis’ track marks and scatalogical over Madonna’s bedroom habits.

To describe Hamburger’s targets as easy would be, well, easy, but he’s not trying to win you over with substance. Does the punchline really matter if you’ve already set a scene of a woman getting pregnant by a pit bull? The crowd was here to be uncomfortably shocked, or to see their friend’s reactions, as people looked at each other after the jokes to make sure they weren’t the only ones laughing about down syndrome or David Carradine’s suicide (they weren’t.) Hamburger gurgled away, touching on Michael Jackson, Kenny G, 9/11 and the sins of Terry Schiavo before settling into a finale I’ll call the Heath Ledger suite. I could tell you how Julia Roberts paid tribute to him but why spoil it and make this review NSFW? If you dig cringe, check out Hamburger but take a friend and revel in their awkward reactions, wondering “what the fuck did he just say and should I laugh?” I left completely satisfied but in desperate need of a shower; the material and the bodily fluids in the air and on the mic leave you feeling more than just a tad bit dirty.

Previously in comedy:

• 2/10: Behind The Desk 35: Spotting THE Crazy In the Arts (Vol. 2)
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
• 1/24: LiveDC: Adam Carolla @ Fillmore
• 1/20: Behind The Desk 32: Eddie Brill Is Common
• 1/17: LiveDC: JB Smoove @ 930 Club
• 12/8: Tom Arnold - Up Close & Very Nice
• 12/5: LiveDC: Michael Ian Black @ Sixth and I Synagogue
• 12/5: Lauren Weedman-BUSTED
• 12/1: R.I.P. Patrice O'Neal - brilliant 1969 to 2011
• 11/30: BYT Interview: Michael Ian Black