Change Your Image
gregorynj
Reviews
Insomniac with Dave Attell (2001)
Never a dull moment!
"Insomniac" never fails to make me laugh out loud!
Much of the humor of "Insomniac" comes from the unintended absurdity of the situations that Dave Attell encounters during his nocturnal adventures: big hairy men in blue jeans and leather harnesses whipping each other with a cat o'nine tails in a Boise gay bar; a group of women celebrating a batchelorette party walking down the street with a 6-foot tall inflatable penis; the sometimes incoherent, often nonsensical ramblings of the various street people he meets, etc. "Insomniac" gives credence to the phrase that "you just can't make this stuff up", and this show is proof that reality is often funnier - much funnier - than fiction.
Dave always keeps things moving for the viewer with his great wisecracks and observations. I love the time he was at the Bunnyland Ranch in Nevada - a legal brothel. The house "madam" was giving Dave a tour of the place, including all the "role-playing" rooms (ex., one with a giant crib for people into that sort of thing), when they walk by the business office. Dave says something like, "Is this a real office or part of someone's fantasy" - funny because after seeing the role-playing rooms, now it's plausible that customers could come to live out an office-based sexual fantasy, and Dave's comment articulates the humor of this "anything goes" environment. Dave's follow-up comment: "Could I have sex on the fax machine?" Hostess: "We can arrange just about anything for you".
"Insomniac" is definitely in-the-moment humor that you have to watch firsthand to appreciate. Many of the situations are sexually suggestive...or just downright sexually explicit (images of taboo body parts are screened out)...but this isn't exploitation, because it's all just part of the everyday (everynight?) human behavior that Dave brings us to see. But don't get the wrong idea - "Insomniac" is not just a survey of sexual fetishes. Dave also introduces us to the people who work through the night to keep the world running: sewage plant workers, coal miners, police officers, firemen, among others. While cracking jokes about the jobs these folks have to do and the environments they work in, Dave also helps us appreciate just what these people actually do for a living, often toiling away in anonymity while the rest of us sleep. In that sense, "Insomniac" is more of an urban athropology study (with sarcastic commentary) than a comedy show.
There's a reason this show is on late at nite, but if you're not uptight and can appreciate the humor in the absurdity of human behavior, you won't be disappointed!
The Blues Brothers (1980)
I can't stop watching the Blues Brothers!
Maybe it's the zany predictability, the sense of early 80's nostalgia, or the way the movie showcases some incredible musical legends....but whenever I stumble upon The Blues Brothers on cable lately, I can't stop watching it! I think I must have watched this movie at least 3 times in the past few weeks.
Granted, most SNL skit-to-movie concepts are dead on arrival (or should be), but The Blues Brothers was cut from a different cloth. Belushi and Akroyd - two members of what I consider the "Master Class" of SNL - are funny not because they portray Jake and Elwood as humorous characters, but rather for the way they portray the quirky Blues Brothers as unfazed by the chaos surrounding them, and oblivious to how the other characters perceive and react to them. It's the ironic humor inherent in eccentric characters who take themselves much more seriously than does the rest of the world.
Much of the enjoyment of this movie comes from the wonderful musical cameo performances by the likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, etc. The Blues Brothers would have been just another (forgettable) cop-chase comedy without them. Belushi and Akroyd could never have carried this alone - especially the way they sing, although I do enjoy their bullwhip-cracking rendition of "Rawhide", and always chuckle at the way "Stand by your Man" makes the beer bottle-tossing rowdies at "Bob's Country Bunker" melt away to mush (and I always feel sorry for that poor guy drowning his lonliness in his beer mug!).
All in all, The Blues Brothers is two hours of light-hearted, inoffensive, and (for some of us) nostalgic fun, to be enjoyed but not taken too seriously.