Jim Gaffigan Performs Tonight at Rose State
Comedian Jim Gaffigan
Back in the ‘30s, an English vaudeville comedian named Max Miller kept all his nasty jokes in a blue notebook, and it gave birth to the comedy business phrase, “playing blue.” Comedian Jim Gaffigan doesn’t have a blue note in his book, and it all came down to curse words not meshing with his methods.
“I am a clean comic and … it was kind of this artistic decision that I got rid of curse words, because it’s not necessary when you’re talking about Hot Pockets and escalators,” Gaffigan said in a recent phone interview.
Gaffigan, who performs Saturday at Rose State Performing Arts Theater, doesn’t take a dim view of the Chris Rocks, Lewis Blacks and Patton Oswalts of his business, but as a top practitioner of observational humor, he found himself cursing less and less until the profanity was gone. He unconsciously weaned himself from it. Gaffigan said he’s big in Salt Lake City, and families can listen to his discs together in the car without sudden blushing or cupping junior’s ears.
His style is a wonder of deconstruction. Gaffigan will write one joke, and then work that topic from every direction until he reduces it to a core of ridiculousness. His routine about the portable pastry Hot Pockets is a favorite — Gaffigan gets to the taste, the process, the ingredients, the after-effects and the insidious three-note jingle.
“Here I am writing this new hour, and I’m always writing, and every comic has their own style, and my style is an analysis of the mundane,” Gaffigan said. “If I’m going to be talking about ketchup, it’s getting it at every angle. You’re going to be talking about usage, about packaging, and you’re going to be talking about perception of ketchup. You’re going to tackle the whole topic.
“Right now I’m working on these bowling jokes,” he continued. “There’s part of me that loves the fact that, if I literally described my act where I’d say, ‘I’m going to talk about bowling, and then I’m going to talk about camping,’ it would sound horrible. But, the fact that I can present that in a way that it’s interesting and hopefully insightful, is some of the challenge that I like. It’s the comedy nerd in me that makes me like that.”
What he likes is hotter than a certain microwaveable convenience food: Gaffigan’s latest Comedy Central special, “Beyond the Pale,” is one of the most popular comedy hours in the network’s history. He recently debuted the second season of “Pale Force,” the animated short series in which he and the similarly melanin-deficient Conan O’Brien are translucent superheroes, and his work as a actor has received strong notices. Gaffigan currently stars in the comedy series “My Boys” on TBS, he recently appeared in “The Love Guru,” and will appear with Maggie Gyllenhaal and John Krasinski in the upcoming Sam Mendes film, “Farlanders.”
But for now, Gaffigan is bringing sexy back: he’s calling his current jaunt through the U.S. “The Sexy Tour,” and it begins, naturally, in Oklahoma.
“I am trying to gain a little more weight and lose a little more hair so that I can ensure that I am sexy, at least by the time I get to Oklahoma City,” he said.
– GL
IN CONCERT
Jim Gaffigan
Where: Rose State Performing Arts Theatre, 6420 SE 15, in Midwest City.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets: $39.75.
Information: 297-2264 or tickets.com.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment