In winter 2006, my fiance and I saw Brian Regan at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. This was actually the second time we’ve seen him live, and the millionth time we listed to his jokes in any fashion. Just a few weeks ago, Comedy Central released another new special for Brian. For years we’ve been listening to him online, catching his act wherever we could, and just cracking up! So was it worth a second live show? Yes it was! In fact, I’d easily go to another live show if he comes back. This review is for those who haven’t heard of him or seen him live to tell you why you should start shopping for tickets now!
Humor for all ages
First, you have to decide who you want to go with. Brian Regan is the cleanest comedian out there – without being boring at all! I wouldn’t mind bringing my grandpa, my mom, or even young kids to a Brian Regan show. About the only bad word is Hell which isn’t even really bad! He tells no dirty jokes, no innuendos, there is absolutely nothing you’ll have to explain to your kids. On his website, he even shows winners from his Brian Regen Impressions Contest and they are all kids. I think this is awesome because it teaches kids early that humor can be funny without being adult!
Observational Humor
So are you wondering how “clean” humor can actually be funny? Don’t get me wrong, I listen to Dane Cook, George Carlin, and lots more people who love to swear or go into adult comedy… however Brian is still just as good, if not better, than those comedians. He focuses his entire act on observations – things we all see in every day life – and he makes them into a joke. It’s funny because it is so true, yet you never thought of it yourself! One of his most famous skits is about pop tarts, I’ve quoted some of it below. Every Brian Regan fan should know this.
———START JOKE———————————
I’m looking at the Pop-Tarts box, and I noticed they have directions on there. I give up on this species. They have two full sets of directions. They have toaster directions. Which, I’m not making this up, the toaster directions are longer than one step. I don’t know how it’s possible that the directions are longer than one… You’d think it would be, (Reads Box) “Step 1: Toast the Pop-Tarts… Go ahead, toast ’em… It’s okay… Hey are you still reading this?”
But they’ve managed to break it up into smaller increments. These are the actual toaster steps. I wanna be in the room watching someone who has to consult these steps. “Okay, Number one: Remove pastry from pouch. (Astonished look of confusion) (Removes pastry) O-kay… Yeah… I see where they’re going with this. We are banging on all cylinders now. Okay, Number two: Insert pastry, oh okay, vertically! (Confused hand motions) …into toaster! (Looks around, confused) …I gotta get a toaster!”
———END JOKE————————————-
Brian’s got a million of these up his sleeve… and like I said, it’s stuff you laugh at because you know exactly what he’s talking about. Yet you would never come up with the joke the way he did, which is what makes it so great.
It’s not just about the jokes, it’s about the expressions!
Brian doesn’t just stand still, and he doesn’t just talk… he uses facial expressions and moving around the stage to demonstrate his jokes which makes it even funnier. Even when I try to repeat back his jokes to my friends they don’t think it’s as funny as when I pop in the DVD and show them the real joke coming from Brian himself! The above quote demonstrated some of this because that whole second half of the joke he didn’t act like a comedian but instead acted like a guy who was reading the pop tarts box! He over-exaggerates the movements of the guy trying to read the box. With all of his “visual” jokes, you can actually picture the person he’s trying to demonstrate. This brings his jokes to life! You may have seen others do the same thing in real life… or maybe you’ve done or thought the same things that he is talking about, but as I said before, you’ve never seen it done in the same way as Brian does it.
———START JOKE———————————
I was in the store the other day, I was reading the Fig Newtons label. I was trying to see if it was ok to eat them. Everything looked pretty good, the fat content and everything. So I’m thinking I could eat these. I looked at the serving size – two cookies. Who the heck eats two cookies? I eat Fig Newtons by the sleeve!
———END JOKE————————————-
Completely New Humor!
I was really excited that Brian Regan’s jokes at this show were all completely new to me! Even though I catch him online and on tv all the time, he came up with even more new jokes. This is another reason he’s a great comedian. He doesn’t just repeat the same old popular jokes in his act. At the end of the show, he came back for an encore and did whatever jokes the audience yelled out. However besides that encore, the rest of the show was all new and all hilarious. Unfortunately I have a bad memory and can’t remember too many of the jokes enough to do them justice here. So instead, here’s another one I caught online.
———START JOKE———————————
We needed a refrigerator. We went to an appliance store, there’s a salesman there. What’s this guy supposed to say about refrigerators? “Well you have this refrigerator here. This keeps all your food cold for $600. You’ve got this refrigerator, this keeps all your food cold for $800. Check this out $1400, keeps all your food cold.”
———END JOKE————————————-
Doesn’t take himself to seriously!
Another reason I think he’s a great comedian is because he’s not a stuck-up, high on himself kind of guy. I gather that not only by the types of jokes he tells, or interviews he does, but also in the way he deals with failed jokes. He had a newer joke that didn’t go over too well and when the crowd was kind of quiet he said “That was a new joke. I appreciate your feedback”… and everyone found that to be hilarious. It showed me that he knows some jokes may fail and he’s willing to give them a shot anyway. Some more snobby comedians won’t try brand new jokes in front of a crowd, but Brian’s not worried about it because he knows his fans will still be there for him even if he tells one failed joke! But most of his jokes don’t fail, especially not the one below which I can’t help but laugh at. I mean, how true is this!!
———START JOKE———————————
We also had to get the phone turned on. It’s different then I thought, I didn’t know how it works so I asked him (as Brian) “how does that work? Do we have to wait in our home for a few days for the phone people to come out?” (As phone company) “No we do it differently now. We can just flip the switch from right here.” (As Brian)…. pause… “Oh, great…. can you go ahead and flip it?” (As phone company) “We’re gonna flip it next Thursday.” (As Brian) “Can you flip it right now?” (As phone company) “We’re gonna flip it Thursday, late, or Friday, or sometime in November.”
———END JOKE————————————-
In the End
Catch Brian Regan when he comes to your town, you won’t regret it. You can buy CDs, but the DVDs are better because seeing it makes it 10 times more funny. Still have your doubts? Check him out online first at http://brianregan.com/ You’ll see bits of some of his skits. He also has a Myspace Fan page so look him up there as well. Brian might not be the most “heard of” comedian out there, but he definitely is one of the best. I’ve ran into people of all ages who were huge fans like me. I’ve also ran into people of all ages who never heard of him, yet once I showed them some of his DVD, they became huge fans like me! So check him out and get a whole lot of clean laughs. Enjoy!!
