Comedy Review: Jim Florentine, Anger is a Gift

CD REVIEW
Jim Florentine: Anger is a Gift
2 stars (out of 5)

By Ryan P. Carey

Jim Florentine’s Anger Is a Gift misses the mark considering his stellar body of work. Best known as “Special Ed” on Crank Yankers, Florentine is widely heralded for his hilarious Terrorizing Telemarketers series. Additionally, he is a very funny stand-up comic, but if you’re looking to grab one of his stand-up albums, I would opt for his prior release, Jim Florentine Live: Get the Kids out of the Room which trumps Anger is a Gift substantially.

Anger is a Gift listens less like a comedy album and more like late-night shootin’-the-breeze over a game of darts at the bar. Florentine covers The Man Show-esque guy-topics like “I just wanna watch the game!” and “girls will only sleep with you if you’re an @sshole.” It’s familiar territory, but Florentine’s writing doesn’t really go anywhere; instead he relies on his “Gimme a break already!” personality to carry the jokes, and the end result sounds like monotonous morning radio.

Unlike most early morning talk shows, Anger is a Gift isn’t entirely un-enjoyable. A few choice bits about drunk driving and dry humping are standout laughs. A few moments of talking with the audience about his girlfriend made me wish he did more crowd work on this album, because that’s an area where he seems effortlessly funny.

As part of a crew of comedians known for angry, sarcastic and shockingly cringedelic comedy, Florentine’s material on Anger is a Gift is hardly angry, less confrontational, less surprising, and less thought out than the Nortons, Levys and Lynches of the world.

To put into perspective where Florentine seems to have been focusing his talents, he closes the disc by simply recalling pranks that were done on the Meet the Creeps DVD series. It’s certainly funny stuff, but when your best closing bit for the new album is simply an anecdote about stuff you did on a previous project, it should be a sign that it’s either time to sit down with the pen and paper and put some real elbow-grease into your act — or just stick to what you do best.

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Meet the Creeps, Vol. 2