An anonymous kinda fella was good enough to send along this fantastic show recap of the You’re Welcome! show from last night. It’s so great in fact, it makes our previous one look like shitty goth poetry. Enjoy.

Meta Comedy at the Meta Theater

Lineup:

Drew Droege
Jarrett Grode
Josh Fadem
Patton Oswalt
Joe Wagner
Chris Fairbanks
Brent Weinbach
Andy Kindler

You’re Welcome concluded it’s first month of shows with a bang. It’s often said that Andy Kindler is a “comedian’s comedian,” which always bugs the crap out of me because it infers that the rest of us don’t get him at all, and nothing could be further from the truth. It was appropriate that Kindler closed what ended up being a real comedy show for real comedy fans. Since there were apparently fewer a capella groups touring LA this week, the crowd was made up almost entirely of CDR regulars/junkies who enjoyed a night of “comedians’ comedy.” Patton Oswalt looked out at the crowd of diehards and remarked, “it’s a Kindler!”

Jarrett Grode did the only thing resembling an actual comedic set of prepared material, which consisted entirely of only his most racially-questionable jokes. Josh Fadem had an inspired set of intentionally awkward Kraftwerk, I mean crowd work, and Brent Weinbach amazed with his ludicrous physical inventions. Drew Droege hosted as a fetching Chloe Sevigny trying out a comedy act for the first time. Chloe’s best moments came when she did impressions based on crowd suggestions. “Isaiah Washington!” yells someone in the crowd. “You faggot!” yells Sevigny. “Hitler!” yells Kindler from the wings. “You faggot!” yells Sevigny.

Patton Oswalt was Patton Oswalt (say no more), and Joe Wagner had a set of whispered, internalized rage that segued beautifully into a moment when he ran to the fake window of the fake set of the fake Meta Theater, opened it and yelled “I’m not going to take it anymore!” Comics tonight referenced Network, the Beatles, Fibber McGee and Molly, and even the Ted Mack comedy hour and somehow the audience in 2007 ate it up (thank goodness for Kindler providing some balance with up to date YouTube and James Blunt references).

The jokes of the night were jokes about jokes. At one point Weinbach did a bit within a bit within a bit that I’m still trying to work through in my head.

So was it a comedy show, or was it a riff on a comedy show? That is the meta-question of the night. What hath Kindler and his disciples wrought with his deconstruction of the artform? Watching so many comics play with the structure and content of the standup act, it occurred to me that we in LA are a bunch of effete fucks. We laugh at comedy and we also laugh at Comedy. If that makes any sense, metaphysically. It’s a Kindler, alright. And I’m Okay With That.

There’s an Oswalt line about imagining Kindler as Ben Franklin that needs to end up on a bumper sticker, it’s so fucking great: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and a third thing.”

For a bunch more photos, head over here.