Rating: ****1/2
Minneapolis-based Stand-up comedian and writer, Adam Quesnell looks like a D&D addict that just discovered motorcycles. In fact, never before has a comedian so perfectly fit the place he tells jokes. He's Minnesota all the way.
Like most good comics, he's decided to relocate to Los Angeles soon (Maybe he's already there?) to pursue that big comedy pot 'o gold.
His latest release entitled "Despair II: Social Justice Warlord" is a sequel of sorts on Dan Schlissel's iconic Stand Up! Records. I got the chance to see Quesnell in Austin, Texas leading up to the recording of this record so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the material evolved and translated to the archived audio.
I'm gonna listen to it now.
Listen to "The Difference Between Fear and Disgust" on Soundcloud here:
The show starts out hot with Quesnell demanding the crowd's attention from the get-go. He's got a way about him that makes you connect. He really speaks to the run-down every-man in all of us. Early on he does some Trump material that's actually original. What a breath of fresh air that is. The middle of the set is strong with pontifications on eating too much Mediterranean food and social media political opinions being highlights. He has a bit in the last third about killing spiders that might be my favorite bit of all time on the subject (see sample track above). Really funny and smart stuff. I'm impressed by the consistency of the set. In fact, it seems to get stronger as it leads to closer "Science Called". The closer in a comedy set is traditionally the comics best bit for whatever chunk of material that comic happens to be performing. I'm not sure that's the case in this point, but I will say that it's hysterically funny and a tremendous way to end the set and subsequently this album.
This is one of my favorite comedy albums of the year. Quesnell delivers a smart, edgy, and current hour of stand-up comedy that will appeal to a larger portion of people than his reputation as a "nerd" comic suggests. Highly recommended.