Tom Green
March 13th (early show)
The Laughing Derby
Louisville, KY
Maturity looks good on Tom Green. He seems to have transitioned into middle age with an analytical view on the world around him that lends itself generally to a thoughtful point of view that works well with stand-up; instead of the all-consuming desire to shock the world which drove his comedy two decades ago when he arrived on Mtv just in time to say farewell to music videos and screw-the-world angst.
After watching his show at The Laughing Derby last night, Green has clearly been focusing his attention on becoming a stand-up comedian. He has a point of view that addresses things in the world around him – pornography, for example. We watch too much of it, and he sincerely seems to believe that, considering the topic wasn’t segueing into a well of hacky masturbation jokes to follow. He feels that we have become to tech obsessed, social media not only gives us more information than we need, but it actually gives us more information than we want.
And do you know what? For the most part, Green is right. Of course, when he addresses such issues it’s more observational and clever and wraps nicely with a punchline at the end. He is confident and capable on-stage now, handling unruly audiences with the ease of a seasoned stage veteran. The last time he was in town, five years ago, he had just begun doing stand-up, and it was rough. It was a lot of celebrity posturing, rehashing moments from his past and expecting new laughs. Admittedly, Green did take a brief look back at his previous work last night (most notably Freddy Got Fingered), it was minimal and more than worth the brief nod – and he certainly wasn’t hanging laurels on his past achievements – but rather expecting to be judged on these jokes in this moment.
