A friend has invited me and some others out to a show by Brian Regan, a comedian that I at least don’t recognize and perhaps have never heard. I could go out and just look at some of his stuff on YouTube.
But I have decided to solicit advice from you all. Should I pay $40+ for a ticket to this guy’s show? What’s your opinion on him? Especially helpful might be: if you like X, you’ll like Regan. Or if you hate Y, you should give it a miss.
The reason I’m asking this way is that I think it might be fun to go see a performance by a comedian with almost no preconceptions. For that reason I’d prefer you not quote any of his jokes.
If you like funny walks and lots of weird facial expressions and junior-high-school-level humor, you’ll probably like him.
Personally, I wouldn’t pay $10 to see him. Granted, all I know is what I’ve seen on Comedy Central, but I wasn’t impressed. I wouldn’t be surprised if his live show was full of cussin’ and stuff. Nope, not a fan.
Brian is pretty good. I used to dislike him because he would repeat his punchlines to the point of distraction, but in his latest bits he seems to not be doing that anymore.
If you like the wordplay style of George Carlin, but a bit cleaner, give Brian a try.
ETA: Yes, he does a lot of facial expressions. I forgot that because I mostly hear him on satellite radio.
He’s a fluffy type of Seinfeldian comic with a quirky delivery. He makes goofy faces, and struts around strangely. He tends to do a lot of punchlines that are repeated over and over for effect in a dippy sounding voice.
He’s not unfunny. I’d say some of his material is very chuckle-worthy and he certainly has good comic timing and is an enthusiastic performer.
It depends on your tastes. If you’re hoping for Carlin / Pryor / Patten Oswald / Doug Stanhope / David Cross type comedy, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
From every clip I’ve ever seen of him, the audience sure seems to have a good time. I suppose that goes a long way.
Points out the obvious, but in a sarcastic, look at yourselves sort of way (not too high on the intelligence beam to be honest) If you haven’t seen any of his stuff, go, you’ll definitely enjoy it.
Once you have, the charm sort of dwindles…still funny though.
The guy who is organizing this has, to my knowledge, only heard him on satellite radio. He is a big Steve Martin fan from way back when, so goofy physical comedy would also be his thing.
As for me, the last comedian I saw live was Lewis Black, who I generally like quite a bit, although he also has his off moments.
GO! We watch him whenever we can on Comedy Central, even if it’s a show we’ve seen several times! Caught him last year at the Pageant in St. Louis and just laughed hysterically the whole time. He is one of our favorites among Louis Black, Ron White and Jim Gaffigan. Watch for the Optometrist and Card Shopping bits!
The funny faces and strutting are odd at first but his stuff is funny enough that you stop noticing that. I like that fact that a lot of his stuff is word comedy instead of the standard ‘My wife does this’ or ‘My did daughter said this’ bits
I paid more than that to see him in St. Louis last year, and it was fantastic. His comedy is very family friendly, but it doesn’t prevent him from being funny. It’s incredibly difficult to make clean humor appealing, but he manages it. He’s very animated, lots of goofy, rubberface stuff. But he doesn’t rely on that to carry the set. He actually has jokes, and they are actually funny, even without the goofy faces.
I don’t think you’ll regret it, and I’m sure you’ll laugh. I have pretty generous taste in comedy, so I can’t give an example of my taste to help you understand what I laugh at.
I like him. I still quote one of his bits to myself when I’m trying to spell:
I before E except after C
Or pronounced as an A as in neighbor and weigh
Or on Tuesdays and Thursdays and all throughout May
And you’ll always be wrong no matter what you say!
Nope, no cussin’ at all. He (AFAIK) never swears, even in his live shows. For the most part, I like his humor, though some of his jokes are funny, till he keeps them going far too long. For instance, he had a bit about getting a sno-cone when he played little league baseball as a kid. Starts off funny, but by the billionth time he says “I get a SNO-CONE even if I don’t play the game! Free sno-cone!” it gets old.
But his bit on the spelling bee in school is spot on.
Also:
“I was driving and saw a sign that said ‘blasting zone ahead’…shouldn’t that sign read ‘road closed’?”
I like him, but wouldn’t be good at comparing him to other comics.
I’ve seen him a couple times on comedy central and do agree that the first few minutes, he seems really weird and then he gets a lot funnier.
He does do a bit of rubberface/silly walk type stuff, but it’s a lot better than, say, Jim Carrey. It’s more sarcastic and not as stupid. I wouldn’t say he’s super sophisticated, though… he’s goofy, but I’ve never watched one of his things and thought, “well, that was really stupid” the way I have for some others.
I would probably pay to go see him live if I were invited, but wouldn’t wait in line to buy tickets or anything.
Since Brian Regan rarely does shows in Canada, a couple of friends and I road-tripped to Albany to see him about 5 years ago.
It was absolutely worth it, and I’d certainly do it again if the opportunity presented itself, though I think that would be my max since the material starts to get old after a while. I laughed so hard that I had sore abs and sore cheeks by the time he left the stage… and not a single cuss word or poop joke the whole night, either.
