Jim Norton - Please Be Offended

Jim Norton has been rapidly approaching mainstream success in recent years, on a trajectory only eclipsed by the great Louis C.K. His presence on O&A has certainly not hurt anything, nor has his relentless stand-up touring. I wasn't crazy about his last recording, owing mostly to it being material I was already familiar with, but he's cleared the slate and stepped up with a new hour courtesy of upstart cable channel Epix, who you may remember did Bigger & Blackerer with David Cross a year or so ago.

Please Be Offended is a nice follow-up. Well, not nice, but definitely good. The opening segment that features both a transsexual and Ozzy Osbourne on the toilet (in separate vignettes) sets the tone for what you'll be getting for the next hour: namely commentary on a litany of topics including, but not limited to: Al Sharpton, prison rape dynamics, and The Dog Whisperer along with a laundry list of deviant sexual proclivities. You (hopefully) won't watch Please Be Offended with your Mom, but you do stand a very good chance of laughing your ass off.

Check it out here.

R

David Cross - Bigger And Blackerer

I enjoy David Cross stand-up a lot, but it's tempered with a number of times I've interacted with or been around him where he almost universally seemed like a grade A douche. More often that not it just seemed to be for the sake of being a douche. You would think that a guy who was into his dog and Superchunk would be fun to be around at least once, but I've rarely found it to be the case. Whatever, I'm no day at the beach my own self and last time I checked I don't have a twenty-something actress girlfriend or any TV presence, nor am I releasing my second CD on Sub Pop. David Cross is doing all these things and releasing Bigger and Blackerer in a triumverate of incarnations to boot. As I understand, there is also a companion DVD of the same name that shares a small amount of the same material and a special on some weird pay cable channel I've never heard of. All of the material is good, taken from two back to back sets in Boston and while it's perhaps not as great as Shut Up! or It's Not Funny, it's still pretty entertaining. Cross skewers health care reformers, Diantetics and Mormonism, but also covers drug abuse, date rape and shitting ones self in public, so obviously Bigger and Blackerer should be on your short list of gifts for Mom on Mother's Day. Beat the rush and pick up Bigger and Blackerer here from your friends at Sub Pop.

R

David Cross - I Drink For A Reason

David Cross is a slippery slope for me. I think that his comedy albums are absolutely brilliant, but all that good work is somewhat diluted by every interaction anyone I've ever known him to have with the service world/common people resulting in reports of him being a total douchebag. I would have never thought that anyone who was that much of a Superchunk fan would be that much of a shitbag, but I've obviously been wrong before.

Cross was on one of the late night shows recently talking about his recent month long stand of sold out London shows and did a set at Bumbershoot that is making the interweb rounds, so I mistakenly snapped this up thinking it was a new stand-up set. I Drink For A Reason is actually an audio book with Cross narrating. I would say, in theory, that this a good idea, but while the bits are decent, and it is certainly much more engaging in DC's own voice, he seems to have a DQ (douche quotient) that is off the charts. It's also very, very long, which may be either onerous or equitable depending on how you slice it. I would say that the former is the closest to the truth, but I guess you should probably decide for yourself.
Personally, I'd look for the live show.

R