Brian Regan

Last night I drove down to Tucson with a friend to see a comedian named 'Brian Regan' perform.  I have no idea why he did not come to Phoenix. You may wonder why I would drive 2 hours on a work night in order to see a comedian? He is by far the funniest comedian I have ever seen--and I watch a possibly unhealthy amount of stand-up comedy.

The most amazing thing about this guy is, his stand up is squeaky clean. It seems like every comedian relies at some point on foul language, sex jokes, or something similar to get some cheap laughs. Not this guy. Don't get me wrong--sex jokes and foul language can be hilarious to me--my second favorite comedian is Pablo Francisco, if you've ever seen his unedited shows you know what I'm saying.  But there's almost an art in being able to deliver good clean humor.  And before anyone takes a shot at me for being sanctimonious and whatnot--have you ever gone to a comedy show with a kid? Or taken a first date there? Or even worse your mom? I went to see Ralphie May with my family--my sister, brother and my mom! And it was foul as all hell and more than a bit uncomfortable. Funny as hell but still uncomfortable.  I also went to see Ron White with my friend and his friend from out of town. Didn't realize until we were on our way to the show that this chick friend works for a christian radio station. Again, the show was funny as shit to me but a bit uncomfortable situation (because Ron White is vulgar as hell outside of that Blue Collar Comedy shit).

Anyway my point is, if you like standup and you haven't seen or heard of Brian Regan you definitely need to check him out.  He didn't have one clunker joke the whole night.  I have seen him live now 5 or 6 times and while he does have some standard material, there's been new stuff every single time.  Other comedians, I will only see once about every 3 or 4 times they come through just because their material doesn't change. Brian I will see every time (and even risk a late start at work because of it).

Just as a reference point--I saw Mitch Hedburg once and it was the most horrible show ever.  Stephen Lynch opened up and was fantastic, but Mitch was all coked out on god knows what, and broke down some way into the show. He layed down on the stage, mumbling incoherently, people were yelling out some of his routines for him to do, and he was screwing them up. He said he really needed a Xanax and someone threw some pills up on the stage--he started swallowing them. Some chick from the front row grabbed him and started making out with him. It was horrible. When they came out and said drugs hadn't been a factor in his death, well I won't say I found it humorous, because that's just wrong.