It Takes a Village is an interesting table-turn on the typical heckler-performer dynamic. Typically it’s the person on the stage versus the unruly denizens watching said person. Here it’s almost like Bagg’s the heckler.
Barris is a grade-A examiner of the human condition, finding its peculiarities and mining them for the humor that is so often present but not always easily articulated.
Too often, Izzard feels like he’s having a conversation for himself, by himself—more like he’s actually struggling with What It All Means as opposed to mining it for laughs.
Outright, blush-inducing filth is present on Live at the Bowery Ballroom. If the pornographic omnipresence sounds a little overwhelming, that’s because it is, but worth it.
Its mix of Everyman nonchalance and obvious intelligence walks a confident line between the high- and lowbrow. The catch, of course, is that it’s not always the most clever stuff.
The unpredictability is great, because it allows him to go off the rails on a whim, but you get the feeling that if he tightened up his act, it would be one of the best going right now.
Whether it’s a four-minute slow burn or a 30-second setup/punchline format, his strongest material hits in the delightfully bookish, “write what you know” territory of the sciences.
If it seems kinda random, that’s because it is, but the reward is in the delight of seeing where Barry’s mind takes a commonplace incident.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, thpeaks serves its purpose less as a hilarious, long-playing album that will inspire frequent listens and more as a collectible relic of comedy history.
It’s almost as if he’s a comedic guidance counselor, pointing his audience to better decisions. But at the same time, he’ll be the first to admit it’s all kind of bullshit.
A) what he does is so unlike what anyone else does, and B) you kinda start to sound like a fanboy even if you don’t like the material. It’s that awe-inspiring.
Editorial Director: Julie Seabaugh
Editorial Assistant: Daniel Berkowitz
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