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Reviews for the serious comedy fan...
Jason Stuart
Gay Comedy Without A Dress
Independent Release
www.jasonstuart.com
Jason Stuart
is good. Very good. Gay Comedy Without A Dress is the wildest,
fastest paced and funniest comedy CD I have heard in a while.
This guy is lightning quick and very funny. Gay Comedy Without
A Dress could also have been titled gay comedy without a net;
I have rarely heard a comedy CD where the stand up comic interacts
with the audience so constantly. This is a favorite feature of
mine as I see it as working without a net and without a learned
set. Jason Stuart just goes out there and lets you in on everything.
A bit of advice though, if you are lucky enough to catch Jason
Stuart live but do not want to become part of the show or the
target of a funny joke do not sit close to the stage or anywhere
this guy can make eye contact with you.
It's always
been a bit of an issue here at theseriouscomedysite.com
if the approach towards an independent release comedy CD should
be a little more generous. The general consensus is no: funny
is funny, not funny is not funny. This is not a problem for Gay
Comedy Without A Dress. The only problem I have with Jason Stuart
as a stand up comic is he is a little too fast paced sometimes
so a funny joke gets garbled. Nothing a couple more listenings
won't fix, and I will definitely be listening to this CD again.
Another thing
I really like about Jason Stuart Comedy Without A Dress is although
this is an unabashedly gay comic and most jokes are about being
gay there's a lot more to it. All of the comic's family is here,
including is 92 year old grandmother, his orthodox Jew sister,
and very weird mother. Even Disney becomes the target of a funny
joke or two and, well, okay, maybe Tarzan is hot. Buy this comedy
CD, give it to your gay friend, your straight friend, anyone who
likes great stand up comedy.
You should
also check out Jason Stuart in 10
Attitudes, a very different relationship comedy.
 |
Advocate
Magazine
November 2001 issue |
 Gay
Comedy Without a Dress
Jason Stuart • Self-distributed • $15
As
the title of his CD, Gay Comedy Without a Dress suggests,
stand-up comic Jason Stuart knows the difference between being
laughed with and laughed at. Culled from the appearances at the
Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis, Stuart’s CD shows just how
far that out gays and lesbians have come in the field of entertainment:
They no longer need to don the proverbial dress and camp it up
to get the laughs. In mining his own experiences for material,
Stuart- an openly gay actor who has appeared on The Drew Carey
Show and Will and Grace- manages to find his audience’s
common denominators. While the key to Jason Stuart’s appeal
is his ability to cross over to a wider audience without alienating
anyone, gay or straight, in the process, it also does’nt
hurt that he’s funny as hell.
Stuart
wastes no time digging into his routine, going from zero to frantic
in six seconds flat. Over the course of an hour Stuart barely
allows the audience time to catch its breath. Some of his material
is universal – his trials with his family or his religion
– while other aspects of his show rely on an exclusively
gay spin. When relating how his brother asked him “what role
he plays” in his same-sex relationships, Stuart quips, “I’m
Patty Duke in the Miracle Worker.”
At
a few points during his act Stuart name-checks the gay canon –
for instance, clicking his heels and blurting “There’s
no place like home, there’s no place like home.” when
he feigns exasperation with the crowd. the comic is at his sharpest
when he goes off the script and interacts with the crowd. His
remarks about others are stinging without being mean-spirited,
and his jabs at himself are self-deprecating without sounding
bitter.
Unfortunately,
when compared to the fresh angle with which he approaches the
rest of his material, the nods to The Wizard of Oz and
Judy Garland seem perfunctory and listless. Stuart is funny enough
without having to rely on such clichés.
CD
Review
CD
REVIEW in "Q TEXAS"
"Gay Comedy Without A Dress" Jason Stuart Comedy CD
- Grade: A
Laughter
brings people together in strange ways. It breaks down barriers,
shatters stereotypes and just plain makes life more enjoyable.
But before I sound like I should be hawking self-help books on
Oprah, he assured that the new comedy album from Jason Stuart
accomplishes all those tasks, but in a wildly irreverent way.
Many
of the topics are standard fare for comedians, such as crazy families,
politics and relationships. But it’s Stuart’s gay spin
that breathes life into stories that everyone can relate to. There’s
a really funny but about his incredibly shrinking part on a recent
Will & Grace episode, too, so far not to make Hollywood seem
too friendly (as if that could happen).
But
Stuart’s greatest strength lies in his ability to improvise
with the audience. No matter how long a comic spends writing jokes
and preparing an act, if he can’t hold his own against the
whims and rants of a live audience, he might not be all that funny
to begin with. But rest assured, Stuart is a master of his material,
rehearsed or otherwise, and absolutely no one is safe. A classic
segment comes out of nowhere when an audience member goes into
full detail about her tawdry relationship with another woman and
a man. They all live together and even have kids, and Stuart takes
their cue and cultivates some of the album’s best material.
It’s
a great diversion from mundane rantings of radio station DJs and
listening to Madonna’s Music for the ten-thousandth time.
For now, it’s only available through his Web site, Jasonstuart.com,
so if you can’t catch him live, this CD is the next best
thing.
Reviewed
by Steven Lindsey
On
CD
JASON STUART
GAY COMEDY WITHOUT A DRESS
MODERN ARTISTS
Trying
to capture the feeling of a standup comedy routine on CD is not
any easy task. Without being able to see the performer, everything
rests on comedic timing and strong written material. For Jason
Stuart, the process of creating a consistently funny CD appears
effortless.
Gay
Comedy without a Dress is Stuart’s first outing in this
format and the result is a genuinely humorous CD that moves at
a clipped pace. The jokes, and the many subtle side comments,
follow in rapid succession without so much as a pause in the action.
The jokes and nuances are so rapid, the recording demands constant
attention. This is definitely not a background CD in any shape
or form.
Recorded
during a performance at the Acme Comedy Club in Minnesota, the
recording captures the intimacy and feel of a comedy club. The
banter between Stuart and the audience is lively and as strong
as his composed material. This is also aided by the fact that
he is more than able to play off this very appreciative crowd.
If
there is such a thing as a distinctive gay comedic sensibility,
being an openly gay Jewish comic, Stuart takes more than a few
stabs at religion, family and relationships. Also included are
a few pokes at celebrities such as Cher, Whitney Houston, Richard
Simmons and, of course, the Clintons.
Comedy
CDs that can maintain a consisrent rhythm are rare. If you can
only buy one comedy CD, either gay or straight, this is the one
to purchase–it will be worth the time.
Gay
Comedy without a Dress is only available online at www.jasonstuart.com.
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