Miiiiiiirman, Man from the Sea

Eugene Mirman @ Pianos 10/24/05
The 2nd night of a 2-night stand at the venerable Lower East Side venue Pianos, this show (well this residency) was unique because (like the night before) it was taped for a new album that'll be coming out on Sub Pop (who wisely signed Eugene to a record deal). Now for those of you who don't know, Eugene Mirman isn't a musician. He's a comedian (and a very funny one) and one who I'd been meaning to check out live for quite some time now since I'd first heard about him last year. I was particularly interested in him because his family background is quite similar to my own. Like me, he also emigrated here from the former Soviet Union in what is now Russia and came to the U.S. at a very young age (he came when he was 4 and a half and I came here when I was 5; this fact would lead me to believe that we're around the same age, too) and though we obviously took very different career paths (he's a stand-up comedian whereas I work in academia and teach), he also seems to have immersed himself in the same kind of music that I love as well. For instance, I've seen him out and about all over town and at shows, including a Robyn Hitchcock show at Southpaw back in March that I reviewed, and he's toured with Yo La Tengo and The Shins.

This last fact explains why all 3 members of Yo La Tengo were there last night along with Carl Newman from The New Pornographers. Opening the show and introducing Eugene was Todd Barry, who was also quite funny and then Eugene came on and just killed. I'm not really all that familiar with too much stand-up comedy, so I can't really compare him with other comedians, but he's certainly unique in terms of who I've seen and heard over the years in that genre. He has his own oddball style and perhaps that's why indie-rock bands and fans have gravitated towards him recently (me included). He's not particularly angry (in fact he's kind of laid back), but very ironic and observational (and occasionally very dirty but not so much so that it overwhelms the diversity of his act). For instance, last night his routine touched upon everything from letters that he wrote to nouns to describing his time at Hampshire College to ideas for reality TV shows such as naked bear wrestling.

Finally, if you wanna piss yourself laughing and if you wanna get odd looks thrown your way on the subway since you're giggling so hard, listen to his album The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman on your iPod or discman. It never fails to put me in a good mood and cheer me up and I can't wait for his Sub Pop debut.