Tosh point Oh!

Tosh Comedy Tour 2012

Post advisory: By reading the following you agree to laugh at: abortion, pedophilia, gender stereotypes, 911, NDE’s, ethnicities, and if there’s time: rape. No need to thank me, though. I’m just quoting a caveat comedian Daniel Tosh relayed in his opening monologue for his 2012 comedy tour that Jim and I attended last night.

These are front row, too!

Along with at least 4562 fellow Santa Barbarans—the 1 percenter’s, as Daniel dubbed the members of our fair though elite community—that headed over to the Flintstone-themed arena that is the Santa Barbara Bowl. To be fair, the rocky amphitheater has undergone some sprucing up since last I’d been, its seats re-cushioned and its security staff austerely attired in dusty blue jerseys and khakis; looking more country club attendant than concert staff, frankly, but hey. This is Santa Barbara, and we march to our own drummer.

The rabble…

And in a fashionably late manner, as well. As the 8 o’clock start time drew near & passed, a surge of late-coming college kids merged with us thirty, forty and fifty-somethings, exchanging catcalls and bounced beach-balls, and grabbing a seat under the stars. The crowd’s gestalt was exuberant, the balmy twilight pleasant, and no one seemed to mind waiting until a more comedic version of star popped out of the amphitheater’s eaves around 8:15.

Opening act: Dwayne Perkins was worth the trifling delay. A regular on Comedy Central & Conan O’Brien, the engaging African-American relied on some standard racial taboos to illicit laughter from the audience, but his material was David Greer lighthearted—rather than Chris Rock angry—and fresh for all the saturation of that comedic angle. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this YouTube video below.

Pretty funny, huh? That’s what the audience thought, too, so when Daniel appeared on stage a few minutes before nine o’clock, the thunderous applause that greeted him was borrowed at least in part from the outstanding stand-up who primed us for Tosh’s own outrageous take on life.

And what a take it was. Edgier still than his breakout performance on David Letterman 11 years ago, the host of Comedy Central’s popular: Tosh.O killed it for the 70 odd minutes he performed—well-spoken, well-delivered, and oh-so-well received. It mattered little that the YouTube videos his TV commentary plays off weren’t streaming.

We snickered as he touted the Dyson vacuum model as a likely abortion tool, we roared when he speculated on nearby millionaire neighbors bundling children to bed with earplugs, and we…I…whistled when he pointed out that all males secretly hate the “wooh” girl. (The loudmouth party chick made famous in an episode of: How I Met Your Mother.)

From his irreverent suggestion that it’s okay to hit females as long as they’re in the same weight class, to his theory the Chinese will be running our country soon, to his summation that men precede women in death by ten years because they want to, absolutely nothing was off-limits to Daniel. And while all cameras and recording equipment was understandably forbidden at the venue, I think this clip below is a fine example of the angel-faced comedian with a truck stop mouth and razor-sharp IQ.

My “thirty-seconds on the clock” to “break this down” are up, so I hope you enjoyed the review, and remember. Don’t try this at home. 🙂