MY LIST: March

March’s Artist: Demetri Martin

A friend of mine reminded me of the fact that I had named this blog for a Joshua Radin song, yet I failed to cover this obvious artist in my first MY LIST (Music You’ll Like Instantly, SomeTimes). Well, that will have to wait for another month (although you should still check him out for those mellow days), because honestly, I just used the song because it had a cool name. Plus, I just got my hands on an album that falls under one of my most favorite musical categories: Stand-Up Comedy.

There are a plethora of stand-up comedians that I could easily spend pages covering their brilliance, from Eddie Murphy to Dane Cook, the classics to the new comers. You hear comedy is all about timing and the best just know how to time their acts. Oh, and listen, everybody steals from everybody, it is just apart of the business but just like musicians covering songs by other artists, they each have their unique style to bring to the song/joke. However, there are just some comedians that shouldn’t be allowed to perform even in the darkest night club on South 94th St. in the lowest borough of Hell.

Fortunately, Demetri Martin, is not one of those comedians, falls in the category of the formerly aforementioned Dane Cooks and David Crosses of the comedic world. If you are unfamiliar with Demetri Martin, most of you may recognize him from his all too brief forays on The Daily Show. Well he recently released his first comedy album (that I could find) “These Are Jokes”. The non-descriptive, back-to-basics album and track titles are the antithesis of his comic style. Devoid of any political overtones and with the sometimes accompaniment of music and special guests, Martin rolls through a set of jokes and one-liners with dead pan releases and play-on-words observations.

In the vein of Steven Wright, Mitch Hedberg, and Jerry Seinfeld, Martin avoids political based humor, instead aiming at social and observational humor, much of which are like grenade jokes, requiring the audience to think about the double entendres before understanding the real humor in the joke. But Demetri is deft with timing and allows the sufficient amount of pause before proceeding to the next joke. A nod to Martin’s musical talents (instrumental, not vocal) the album includes accompanying keyboard and guitar backing music during certain bits, such as “Sames and Opposites” and “The Remix”. Although the music is not needed it does add to the humor of the situation. In addition, the closing of the album includes some very humorous, studio produced song tracks that feature Demetri’s grandmother and mother, hilarity ensues. Here are just a few of the humorous transcripts of Demetri Martin’s “These Are Jokes”:

- If I had a bookstore, I'd make the mystery section really hard to find.
- I'm gonna open a store called "Chasm." We're gonna be just like The Gap, but way bigger.
- I was in a department store riding the escalator, and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for an hour and a half.
- I remember when I used to really be into nostalgia.
- Went to a clothing store. Lady working there, she got mad at me. 'Cause she said, "What size are you?" And I said, "Actual."

Needless to say I was getting some strange looks walking around listening to this album on my iPod…word to the wise, if people already think you are a little weird, don’t go around laughing to yourself.

The song that will change your life: “Personal Information Waltz”
Other songs that you must listen to: “Same and Opposites”, “The Jokes with Guitar”
Hidden tracks: “One Story”, “The Wisdom Song”