Joel McHale December 30, Mirage
I once heard an interview with Joel McHale in which he talked about transitioning into stand-up comedy. As opposed to many performers who make their bones in stand-up and then move on to television, McHale rose to fame as the host of E! Network’s The Soup, where he delivers quick-hitting jokes based on clips from other talk shows. So it seemed natural for him to move over to stand-up.
Knowing he was new to the game, McHale started by hosting stand-up comedy shows, where his personality could shine and his material didn’t have to be the strongest , because he kept the party moving while the seasoned veterans on those tours did the heavy lifting. It was a smart play and showed that McHale understood just how tough the stand-up game can be. And then, something convinced him otherwise, unfortunately.
Between his E! show and his cult sitcom Community, McHale now has a large enough fanbase to try the heavy lifting himself. The problem is, he’s still so new to comedy, so he doesn’t have enough material to fill that spot. Tuesday night at the Mirage, McHale’s act failed on two fronts: The jokes themselves were weak and, because he tried to fill so much time, his sacrificed editing entirely. That meant even his best jokes got lost in a sea of pillowy-soft punchlines, which, more often than not, garnered just some chuckles.
Ryan Seacrest, the Kardashians, Brett Michaels—McHale tackled many worn out subjects. These aren’t just low-hanging fruit; they’re fruit that’s already fallen into the basket. If he insists on rehashing tired territory, original takes are even more important, not simply: Ryan Seacrest is short, Khloe Kardashian is a deep-voiced monster who needs feeding and Brett Michaels is bald and bangs skeezy women. Yawn.
McHale spent a large swath of time discussing TV shows no longer on the air, a fair subject given his history on The Soup. But instead of distilling something interesting from two or three shows that, for whatever reason, struck a cultural nerve, he took paltry shots at 10 different shows, never really amounting to anything. At one point, he delivered jokes about five shows in a row, and four of the punchlines involved their stars having STDs.
It was disappointing, because McHale is so good on television. Creating a quality act of your own can take years, however, and since McHale never had to rise above the ranks of the open-mic scene, too much of his act frustratingly feels like it still belongs there.
