Danny Lobell - Some Kind of Comedian (CD)

Danny Lobell looks at life from a truly unique perspective, shared by approximately five other living humans: he’s a Scottish Jew. So rare is his breed that the people of Loch Ness are easily more willing to believe a dinosaur lives in a lake down the street than they are to accept that a long line of Lobells stretches back to the days of William Wallace (who, incidentally, always listed “FREEDOM!” as his annual income on his tax returns). But this also means that he’s been treated to a visit to the Holocaust Museum in nearly every major city (that’d be where he formed his theories on the origins of Mine—make that Mein—Sweeper), been reassured to find himself the only non-Muslim on a flight connecting through Dubai, and discovered the awesome secret of global warming: it’s going to melt the North Pole, tank Santa’s workshop, and leave Hanukkah the winter-holiday-winner!

In the course of this stunningly deft set recorded live in Glasgow, Lobell also keeps the crowd in his pocket by gamboling through an array of accents, from a Black Bear (pissed at the very notion that a koala might be considered anything other than a monkey-sloth) to an Asian masseur, the ever-scintillating books-on-tape narrator (in this case sharing the suspenseful yarn of the great penile RoShamBo incident), and, of course, his own Israeli relatives putting a suspicious spin on the clearly Hamas-related fall of the heroic Humpty Dumpty. If all that’s not enough to sell you on “Some Kind of Comedian,” we’re happy to report that Danny Lobell is the only comic we know of who can put together a solid five minutes on the profession of panda masturbation and the shame—and black eyes—that come with being the #2 panda masturbator in Germany. 

CD cover art by Ed Piskor (Hip Hop Family Tree, Cartoonist Kayfabe)

1. Diabetic Strippers
2. Getting a Seat on the Bus
3. Fun with Dogs
4. Gangster South Africa
5. Meinsweeper
6. Dishonorably Discharged
7. A Day at the Isle of Coney
8. Fruit Bruisers
9. Some Kind of Monkey Sloth
10. Environmental Wordplay/Israeli Humpty Dumpty
11. Books on Tape