Michael Ian Black is a pretty decent stand-up comic and his first release, I Am A Wonderful Man, is a pretty decent stand-up comedy CD.
Black goes for innocently edgy material that makes him original:. His callback line on I Am A Wonderful Man is “White power!” and he set it up brilliantly so it works well when repeated.
There is however something about I Am A Wonderful Man that gives the impression Michael Ian Black needs a little bit more life experience before he becomes a really interesting comic. It’s not that he is not a good comic, he is, but he needs more experiences to get really interesting material
There is little doubt Black is an original stand-up. His bit on satanic messages is something you wonder why no one else thought about it before and his terrorist material has a pretty original set-up.
Unfortunately, Michael Ian Black forgets I Am A Wonderful Man is a CD so a couple of his jokes are visual and do not really work. For example, his bit on the lead singer for the Black Crowes is about how he swings the mic. The fact Black thinks his experience seeing the Black Crowes makes for an interesting routine shows he lacks a little bit of life experience and, thus, something a little meatier to use as material.
There is also a rather annoying bit of babbling at the beginning of track 6, College, that is just annoying and immature. So his is constant use of “you know” and “you guys”.
Still, you have to give due credit to a comic who can make jokes about the Nazi Party work. His Billboard and Bumper Stickers bit starts off a bit weak but ends pretty strongly.
His Gay routine is pretty standard fare and I am really not impressed with the couple of knock knock jokes he inserts in his Married With Children bit, especially since his home life is not that interesting.
He tries again for that innocent edgy thing on the last track of I Am A Wonderful Man, Captain’s Blog, where he seems to be reading from his blog on if he had a slave. It does not work because he does not really say anything.
Though I am not as impressed by Michael Ian Black as I think his talent should impress me, I am going to be very curious about his next CD.
I Am A Wonderful Man
Michael Ian Black
Stand-up Comedy CD
Comedy Central Records 2007
55 minutes
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