Last Monday at Toad’s Place in New Haven, a place typically known for its wide variety of musical acts, the audience was in stitches over the comedic stylings of Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter.
Black is a well know TV personality from his work on “Ed,” “Celebrity Poker,” Sierra Mist commercials and most notably as a commentator on VH1’s “I Love The…” series.
Showalter has been a correspondent on “The Daily Show” and was responsible for co-writing and acting in the 2001 cult classic “Wet Hot American Summer,” in which Black also appeared.
Together, Black and Showalter make up two thirds of the comedy troupe Stella, known for their short films and a Comedy Central series of the same name.
Both first gained recognition as members of “The State,” a mid-90s improv troupe from NYU signed by MTV to produce a sketch comedy show. “The State” ran for only a couple seasons but its members have since gone on to dominate much of Comedy Central. Black and Showalter are arguably the most well-known out of the original 11 members.
Showalter opened the night with his unique brand of stand-up comedy. He began by asking the audience what they would like him to do and after several fans requested “cartwheels,” Showalter got on with the show. A highlight of his set was his confession of his feelings about the music world. He played the crowd some of his favorite songs, such as “Crash” by the Dave Matthews Band and “Drops of Jupiter” by Train. He then explained why he loved the songs.
He also admitted to hiding such music in his iPod under trendier artists’ names, such as disguising Sheryl Crow as Cat Power. Showalter also showed the audience some of his artistic renditions of cartoon characters such as the Smurfs, that were all but, well, completely pornographic. Not only was he able to play well off of the crowd, but Showalter’s original brand of stand-up had them crying from laughter.
As the headliner, Black brought a more traditional, albeit deranged, form of stand-up to the stage. Always the one to push boundaries, Black opened his set with an explanation of Nazi Party propaganda. He claimed that any group that could combine the words nachos and Yahtzee and then call it a party, was a group built for success.
In his own words, “Now I’m Jewish, so I don’t agree with everything the Nazis did, but I would have said, ‘sign me up’.”
His comedy continued through his set, commenting on his self-humility by poking fun at the cancellation of the “Stella” TV series as well as his homosexual public image. His obscure and hilarious brand of comedy was a perfect compliment to Showalter’s antics. At the end of the night the two gentlemen signed copies of their “Stella” shorts and met with fans.
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