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Published on 8/29/08
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Beloved for his participation in seminal sketch group, the State, and the absurd series, Stella, as well as for his oppressively wry commentary on VH1 talking-head shows, Michael Ian Black is a cult-comedy favorite. So it’s both admirable and puzzling that he’s tackling stand-up—a very different art form. On his first album, Black relies too heavily on the kind of sardonic, egregiously ironic tone that kills on Best Week Ever but cripples a comic’s ability to build a relationship with an audience. Fortunately, the album gains steam. He hits his stride on later tracks, getting more comfortable, making himself vulnerable and espousing a point of view that’s wholly his own and untainted by detachment. If he intends to distance himself from his former pursuits, it might work, as noted by the album’s biggest laugh: At the end of an emotive and very funny rant about how much he hated high school, Black screams, “So, you know what? I didn’t love the ’80s. For me they were a fucking disaster.”
