Puttering in the Study

Black on Broadway - Lewis Black

As long as I was ordfering Kathleen Madigan, I had to get a couple of Lewis Black's most recent DVDs as well - he's my other favorite comic.  Surprisingly, and I need to actually watch this again, I didn't care for long stretches of this DVD.  It was slow, and not particuarly funny for some reason, unlike what I'd heard on XM Comedy.  His style and timing make a lot of things that are marginal still funny, but some of the subject matter (it snowed in New York during the winter - who would have guessed?) just didn't seem to fit the Black outrage schtick real well.  I still laughed awfully hard - don't get me wrong - but it just wasn't as funny as I was expecting.  Still have a second DVD to watch, and I think its content (seems to be more current political events) may be better.

Kathleen Madigan - DVD and CD

I'd been telling Jamie for months that there was this female comic on XM Comedy that was just hysterical, but I could never remember her name - until she was one of the judges on Last Comic Standing, which Jamie and I have been watching semi-religiously.  She liked her as well, so I ordered her CD and recent DVD and we listened to both on the way to Dallas recently.  Both were funny, although the timing on the DVD takes a little getting used to.  Unlike radio, there are frequent pauses as Madigan takes a swig of water (why they didn't just remove the label I have no idea since they have to blur it our everytime she picks it up).  For some reason that really breaks up the timing I'm used to.  But I did enjoy both very much.  I also but I really liked the way she shows up on stage in the DVD fashionably coiffed and made up wearing heels and a tailored suede jacket with her jeans.  I just thought it was a nice appearance, unlike some of the sloppy getups I've seen other comics in.  Just made her seem to take what she was doing a little more seriously, and made her look more professional.