Our inaugural selection is Impregnated with Wonder, the debut album from Pete Holmes, and my favorite comedy release of 2011.
What immediately stands out in Holmes' comedic sensibility is his willingness to simply be goofy. Opening with a bit about laughing out loud alone, he frequently revels in his own ridiculousness. While his enthusiastic style sometimes leans a bit on the "yelling guy" device for emphasis, it really never becomes grating, and repeat listenings soften the rough edges of Holmes' energetic performance. In the end, it becomes impossible not to appreciate how well-written and clearly-honed Holmes' observational riffs and flights of fancy are.
For interested listeners, Holmes is also the host of the You Made it Weird podcast, in which he gets incredibly personal with fellow funny people on his favorite off-mic subjects: Comedy, God, and sex. Holmes sometimes refers to the show as What the Heck with Pete Holmes, as it's very clearly inspired by Marc Maron's seminal WTF show. Fans of the latter will definitely enjoy this one too.
(Impregnated with Wonder is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify)
Highly enjoyable. I think the mark of a good comedy album is being able to listen to it and not need visuals to know what the audience is laughing at. Even with bits like "Standing like a Pregnant Woman" where the joke could easily be lost, he gets it across so that even though we weren't there, we can totally picture the way he's standing. I do think that he overdoes the "yelling dude" thing a bit, but it doesn't detract from his delivery. Really funny album.
ReplyDeleteHe's coming to Austin in a couple of weeks, and two of my friends are hosting/featuring, so I'll definitely e seeing him live soon.
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