Customer Reviews

I am a Wonderful Man

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hardy har har! No, I mean it. I was at one of the two shows this material was culled from. Michael Black was dead brilliant that night and I memorized some of the jokes. But, I noticed a few changes here and there on the CD, although most of it was clearly from the show I saw. In fact, my wife said after the show that when the CD comes out, we'll be able to hear my raucous laughter on it. She was right. So was I ever surprised upon listening to the CD to hear some jokes told slightly differently. Must be the producers carefully edited the recordings from the two shows here in Chicago, creating a seamless blend.
On a side note, I prefer the other version of "Bumper Stickers" in which the preferable alternatives to "eat s***!" are "kiss my a**!" (oh, O.K., that's not so bad) or "s**k my d***!" (eh, whatever...).
Nit-picking aside, this CD is perfectly wonderful, man. I had such a good time at the show I was quoting MIB for weeks afterward. My highest recommendation for fans of no-holds-barred, crude yet still charming (somehow) and intelligent/dumb comedy. Oh, and Black's comrade Michael Showalter opened. He's another funnyman to seek out. Buy the "Stella" DVD, which includes the entire first and only season of Comedy Central's sorely-missed series (2005).

If you listen to this cd backwards there's a satanic message AND if you open up the case, there's a nudie picture of MIB himself! But seriously folks, there is a nudie pic of MIB and I really enjoyed this album. I've been a fan of his since the State and then Stella - it's so cool that he's going the solo stand-up route. He does it well! All the bizarro you'd expect now with just a little more "take my wife please". Thumbs up!

I got into Michael Ian Black after seeing him on "I Love the 80s" and in Wet Hot American Summer. This is the first time I've heard him do stand-up though, and he's unstoppable. He tells a story about a benefit show in New Orleans where the crowd really sucks and a girl apologizes to him after the show. She says she hopes he doesn't hate New Orleans because of how bad the crowd was. He tells her "No, of course not. Nobody could hate New Orleans. ...Except god." As always, he's fearless, shameless and hilarious. A must have for Michael Ian Black fans.

The title of this CD is "I Am A Wonderful Man", and it was well chosen; for all it's tongue-in-cheek delivery and the fabulously cheesy cover art (and the tasteful nude inlay!), the title perfectly describes the hour of comedy gold that lies on the disc inside.

You don't need to be familiar with Mr Black's impressive body of work to enjoy and appreciate this CD. If you need a little bit of escapism in your day, and want to fill that time with laughing until you're close to unconsciousness, then this is the CD for you. It's handily split into separate tracks so that you can cherry-pick your favourite bits over and over. And speaking of cherries, if your comedy-album hymen still remains intact, you would be doing yourself a favour by giving it up to this Wonderful Man.

Once a fan always a fan. What a great way to spend an hour laughing uncontrollably.

[I'm writing the same review for Michael Ian Black's 'I am a Wonderful Man' and Michael Showalter's 'Sandwiches and Cats' because they came out around the same time and the two comedians are practically joined at the hip.]

I am a huge fan of The State, of Wet Hot American Summer, and I even liked Stella (or at least better than the masses seemed to). I think Michael and Michael are really funny comedic actors and writers. But these stand-up albums aren't very funny. Most of the stand-up feels really trite, stuff you could hear at any comedy club on an average night. Some of it might feel a bit 'edgier' but hey, I pretend to be a racist for laughs too. I'm not selling an album of it.

Black dilutes his routine with a lot of unfunny asides ("Say what you will about XXX, and really, say what you will..."). The big ego bit feels a bit stale, despite its potential -- and it's not even consistent! Later on he's self-deprecating and paints himself as a wimp. Altamont reference, talk about cutting-edge!

Showalter's album is more uneven, higher highs and lower lows. He seems so fascinated with his everyday observations ("Starbucks coffee is too hot and too bitter" drags on for 20 seconds) and most of the humor seems to be about "look how random I can be!" His studio-recorded endeavors mostly keep with this idea. And the girl who brings her cats to the show... Sure, that was rude, but he tries to milk it for comedy for several minutes and comes of unfunny and rude. "The Apartment" is pretty funny, and the Sandwich bit is decent.

I hope to see more sketch comedy from these brilliant guys, but now I know to avoid their audio recordings.

This CD is not for everyone. I personally enjoyed it and it will sit on my shelf with my other comedy cd's, but it did not have any of the huge laughs that some other comedians can get out of me. I did find myself laughing quite a bit though. He is a very strange man and his delivery is pretty good, but it is not like his work that I have seen on TV. Of course on TV he is usually with the rest of STELLA. He has a kind of whiny delivery, even when he is not joking about someone being whiny. Just wait until the end when he talks about his inability to play sports, it is in my opinion the best material on this cd.

He has his moments but some skits are really terrible like the first "Yay." No replay value here, I think there's something about his voice cadence that softens the jokes and makes them ho-hum. And he says "you guys" all the time which is very annoying. The audience is pretty dumb as well.