Dave Attell – Captain Miserable – HBO Special and DVD

Finally! A stand-up comedy DVD that has an original opening.

This hints the Dave Attell Captain Miserable HBO stand-up comedy special and DVD is going to be a fun and original show and Attell delivers. Do not let the cute bunny fool you:  Captain Miserable is not a show for the squeamish or politically sensitive and is beyond the pale of your usual HBO special and DVD.

Dave Attell is one of many edgy, rude, offensive comics but he is one of very few smart ones. Though very crude, Attell rarely swears because he doesn’t need that crutch to make his audience squirm with laughter.

I may not be impressed with how Attell milks his audience at the beginning of the Captain Miserable show to get him to tell his possible Jagermeister commercial jokes but I am by how this stand-up comic connects wildly different elements to get to the most implausible punchline. The tomato juice, Native Americans, history, and wife beater bit is a good example of that.

Captain Miserable also has fun messing around with the usual topics serious comics use such as pro-choice, global warming, and legalizing pot. It is another example of how this comedian is crude and offensive not because he aims for the lowest common denominator in his audience but because he knows his is smart enough to follow and appreciate his leaps of logic.

This HBO special and DVD does contain a couple of echoes from Attell’s comedy CD Skanks for the Memories but these echoes are just in the premises; the jokes are different and either just as good or better.

Not everything in this show works. Even Attell’s audience believes his pedophilia goes to far or he doesn’t set it up well enough to go that far with it. There are moments, including the porn material and the poop jokes that are just lame.

These are fortunately few and far between and there are more times I wish this stand-up comic had done a bit more with a joke; the public service message hooch being a good example.

The closer to Dave Attell Captain Miserable is also really original, as is the credits bit.

This is a stand-up comedy DVD for those who are not afraid of dirty jokes and can appreciate how smart they are. Otherwise, stay away.

Captain Miserable
Dave Attell
Stand-Up Comedy DVD
HBO Home Video 2007
67 minutes

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