Todd Barry may just be the funniest and most unemotional man alive. Set to release his third full-length stand up comedy album, From Heaven, on March 4, the funnyman only adds to his comically creative vault, following Medium Energy and Falling Off the Bone.
In Barry's foray onstage, nobody is safe from satire. He rags on anyone, from annoying fans who ask for birthday requests to the guy in the audience who got a plate of noodles as a present. Accordingly, the album was recorded live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, above a Chinese restaurant - a quirk that he attacks mercilessly.
The droll comedian sports a dry, straight-forward delivery that works wonders with his balding head and crumpled, frustrated facial features. Whether it's inane, annoying, or unbearable, his intonation never changes, only improving the routine.
He talks about the sexual exploitations with his girlfriend and in the same voice, and sometimes sentence, rips apart the cashiers at Old Navy. Meanwhile, he drawls halting phrase after phrase, and each addition to the joke sends the audience into riotous laughter.
One of Barry's strengths is his ability to read the audience's energy, and more specifically, their laughter.
For example, as one joke wears on and he continues, adding different examples that elicit progressively less reaction. By making fun of himself for writing that type of joke, the experienced performer wins the audience back over. "Sorry," says Barry, "my heart wasn't really into that one like it was with the 'Triscuits' one."
Barry has most recently appeared as a feverish bongo player in the season finale of Flight of the Concords. His face is a familiar one in the comedy scene, starring in two of his own "Comedy Centrals Presents..." specials as well as appearing on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Late Show with David Letterman," and "Last Call with Carson Daly."
While From Heaven may be made for a primarily bored, lonely, or severely depressed dynamic, it will not disappoint those with an urge to laugh consistently at the expense of others for a long period of time.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
