WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Tony Woods cuts through the you-know-what
Like many African-American comics, Tony Woods plays the race card from time to time – not that there’s anything wrong with that; Chris Rock does it all the time – but some of his best material involves what people in the comedy trade might call “cutting through the bullshit.”
Hey, it’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it, especially these days when we’re all up to our necks. Had it up to here! With an engaging style and delivery so cool and collected you’d think you were at a laid-back party among friends instead of a comedy club with drunk strangers, Woods performs through Sunday at the Comic Strip. Bullshitters beware.
In one memorable routine, the Washington D.C. comic relates one of his earliest memories of bullshit exposure – Little Red Riding Hood. Think about it, he urges. The story features a girl all dressed in red – “and what kind of woman dresses all in red? A hooker!” – a murder of a grandmother, a granddaughter who hadn’t visited grandma in so long that she mistakes her for a wolf, and a transvestite wolf that dies with a dress on. “His secret is out,” Woods observes. Then at the end, his preschool teacher says, “And they lived happily ever after,” to which five-year-old Tony replies, “Bullshit!”
His teacher didn’t like him very much – “because I was always telling her what was really going on.”
In short, what we have here is a born stand-up comedian.
Dirty Hometown Girl
Now shed a tear of pride for another worthy comic performing in town this weekend – a local girl since moved to Toronto. Kathleen McGee, playing Yuk Yuk’s Friday and Saturday, is a stealth comic of the highest order. You are initially beguiled by her smiling, sweet, friendly delivery – often prefaced with some quaint observation – and then WHAM, she hits you with a line so blue it would make Bob Saget blush.
A big girl who makes plenty of big girl jokes, McGee rarely deploys a bit that doesn’t contain some explicit sexual reference: Oral, anal, urophilia, rape, you name it, and she does. There’s not a whole lot that’s repeatable – like “my blowjobs are so good they make me look thin,” and whoops, we just repeated it – but she does have this to say: “Black guys know how to treat a woman of chunk with respect.”
Oh yes she did – or no she didn’t, whatever the expression is. Does she know Tony Woods is in town?
Kathleen McGee is co-headlining with Dave Martin. Call 780.481.9857 for reservations.
