Show and Attell

It’s been about five years now, but in the back of your brain’s attic — in the place where you store your haziest late-night memories — you must remember him. Perennially scruffy and unshaven, he would appear on Comedy Central every week, dishing out casual, booze-juiced witticisms as he scoured the bars, nightclubs, and nocturnal workplaces of America. The show, Insomniac, was worshipped by the sloshed and/or sleepless. And its host, the patron saint of wisecracking stumblebums everywhere, was Dave Attell. But what’s Attell been up to since quitting the Insomniac gig (because it actually got too popular, believe it or not)? He returned to his first love: stand-up comedy. Without having to holler over a bar’s jukebox to be heard, Attell can now focus more on dropping punch lines than fending off drunk frat boys. You may recall his general comedic style, full of self-deprecating sarcasm, sly innuendo, and surreal non sequiturs. Yet without network censors, he pushes the boundaries of taste further than his lovable teddy-bear-with-a-beer appearance might lead you to believe. In fact, Attell can be downright perverted, even scatological. You’d probably shout “T.M.I.” at the stage — if only you weren’t too busy busting a gut to, y’know, breathe.
Feb. 6-7, 8 & 10:15 p.m., 2009