Do you have an uncle who thinks he's funny, but all he does is repeat tired old lines you've heard a
million times? You smile politely, but it's unfunny and uncomfortable?
The title of this
disc is misleading. "Adlib" means "made up spontaneously", but this DVD is instead a lame
collection of a few tired old one-liners. You are getting a home-made video taken at some
convention. Darwin suggests an onstage situation, offers a few lame comments (sometimes just one)
and then asks the audience to throw in more. The problem is, about half the time, they've got
nothing, and neither does he.
Worse yet, there were a couple guys in his audience whose
idea of humor is nasty and demeaning. If you want your audience to hate you, there are some great
lines here. Darwin goes on at length to worship Don Rickles, a sour, demeaning 82 year old "comic"
sometimes known as the "Master of Venom". If you think insulting your audience is funny, you might
actually like this disc.
Honestly, there are three laughs on this whole DVD. Everything
else is "take my wife, please" kind of lame non-spontaneous non-humor. Long sections are devoted to
worshiping Rickles and other off-topic filler. Darwin can be heard, but the audience responses are
often inaudible. Production values are shoddy and unprofessional. It's awful.
--
Alternative: the same day I bought this disc, I bought Gregory Wilson's Pyrotechnic Pasteboards.
Greg is full of genuinely funny adlibs, both in his performance and tutorials, and he is a masterful
teacher. I got way more material from his live shows than I got from "Reaction Adlibs".
