dan's jams - music reviews

Louis CK. What the hell kind of name is that? Does he hate his middle and last names that much? Or is it just something that makes you think…well I've never heard a name quite like that for. Except for maybe in rap or Weird Science.

Louis…or Mr. CK, if you will, centers his comedic style on absurdity. Absurdity in action, such as "Here's a perfectly tangible situation, and here's the most absurd thing I could have done in response to it," and absurdity in situation, where life presents the most absurd circumstances imaginable. This is not the comedy of airline food dismay or presidential dissatisfaction. Louis is focusing on the mundane and drawing humor out of it in ways you'd never imagine.

About Wal-Mart: "They sell everything, it's ridiculous. I like going in there and asking them for things in combinations that kind of freak them out, because you can get everything there. Like 'Hi, I need a jar of mayonnaise, a stopwatch, and a Bible….I'd like some road flares and a pair of pink panties. Quickly, come on, hurry up. I need them right now….A case of motor oil and a blonde wig. And a glass eye."

That excerpt alone illustrates so much about CK's style. The absurdity of asking someone in a store for far-fetched combinations, but also NOT making them all blatantly allusions to something else - how easy would it have combined requests that implied sex (a condom, pink panties, a jar of mayonnaise) or maybe crime (a shotgun, some shotgun shells, a ski mask). But his combinations don't imply anything other than a feeling that none of these things fit together, yet his delivery suggests that somehow they do.

This disc is somewhat lo-fi, in that you can actually hear some of the edit breaks between tracks; I think this disc was self-produced and at least at this point in time, self-distributed. But it doesn't stop it from being non-stop funny, and I'd suggest it to anyone. You may have to order it from his website at http://www.louisck.com/ .