You might not know Brian Posehn's name, but if you've seen him you know who he is. Posehn, best known as 'the crazy guy from Just Shoot Me!,' looks like no other comedian on the stand-up circuit. Standing at six-foot-six, with tufts of spiky blond hair framing his bald crown and black-rimmed serial-killer glasses perched on his schnoz, Posehn looks like the largest and most imposing geek you might ever meet. His look subverts itself, and Posehn is savvy enough to run with that. The title of his new album, Live in: Nerd Rage, captures this dichotomy at its most basic as well as the tone and substance of Posehn's comedy.
Posehn proudly identifies as a nerd (a metal nerd in particular), and this sense of outsiderdom manifests itself in his skewed take on life. He also rages about many things; jocks, comedians with babies, and the Star Wars prequels are among the targets of his withering sarcasm. Put these two things together and you get Nerd Rage. It's simple.
It's also funny. Really funny. Rib-tickling, tears-in-your-eyes, stomach-hurts-from-too-much-mirth funny. Posehn's skewed, but he's skewed in all the right directions, and the laughs in the set recorded for Nerd Rage (captured during the Comedians of Comedy tour) come quicker than a 16-year-old boy at the Bunny Ranch.
If that last simile strikes you as vulgar or crude, Posehn's humor may not be your cup of tea. He's as consistently vulgar as he is consistently hilarious; indeed, he chastises the audience on the early track "Married Life - Sorry, Fat Dudes" for groaning at the phrase "80-year-old tang," promising them that there are far worse images to come. And there are - like many on the geekier side of life, Posehn is singularly obsessed with sex and the transgressive. Masturbation in particular is a favorite comic category; at one point during the routine "Late Night TV," Posehn says, "I like to punish my dong like I caught it breaking into my house." Those who value propriety and good taste would do well to look elsewhere for their entertainment.
What keeps Posehn from descending to the level of the common blue comic is his engaging phrasing and unique viewpoint. What would be rank dirty-mouthed stuff in the hands (mouth?) of a lesser comedian (say, Martin Lawrence) becomes gloriously funny given the careful language and well-employed slang wielded by Posehn. On the priceless bit "Puppy Time," a scene with his wife on the toilet has her "reading Lucky magazine and droppin' a deuce;" meanwhile, the CD's best bit gives a foul new twist to the idea of a bare neck. George Carlin has said that the secret to stand-up is that it's essentially oratory; as such, the best comics should then know how to choose their words for maximum impact. Posehn knows how to choose his words.
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