Review: Bobcat Goldthwait

Bobcat Goldthwait
“I don’t mean to insult you, but you look like Bobcat Goldthwait”
(Comedy Central records)

This is one of the funniest comedy CDs I’ve heard in a long time. Probably my all time second favorite behind Brian Regan Live. I’ll forgo any Police Academy mentions and say that Bobcat isn’t just funny, he’s intelligent and witty. When he started standup, he was doing a lot of political commentary, which certainly doesn’t appeal to everyone. On this latest album, he trades in politics for Hollywood. But unlike, say, Spade In America, where Spade hurls insults form the comfort of his high chair, what makes Bobcat’s celebrity gossip so hilarious is that’s it’s all about him. He recognizes his film career is dead; he’s doing Hollywood Squares and getting two line roles in films.

The CD opens with. “I’ve been in movies and on television, but you don’t know what a thrill it is to be in an almost filled club in San Jose.” We’re laughing at him, and he’s laughing at himself, but that what he wants. He talks about getting fired from the Squares, about setting the Tonight show on fire, about debating a real life clown on the Today Show while promoting Shakes the Clown.  He’s a screw up, but he knows it, and ironically he’s more grounded than the people who run Hollywood. On being in a scene with Johnny Depp and Paul Reubens in Blow, “I said, is anyone in this scene not on probation?”  He goes on to explain how he and Depp exchange stories of what they did to get in trouble, “Then Depp and I look at Paul and go… anyway.”

His ad-libbed tangents take him to any number of places, depending on what the crowd is saying. He must say, “Where was I?” about ten times, but it’s this ability to go off unrehearsed that makes you appreciate how damn funny he can be. He goes from instigating police officers to why Christopher Reeves shouldn’t get any pity to why hunters are really gay. Trust me, its fucking genius.