- Bookery Reading
Michael Showalter always feels like he’s jerking your chain and man, that’s alright. Patton Oswalt brought us Werewolves & Lollipops earlier in 2007 and The State/Stella vet came at us just before the holiday with Sandwiches & Cats — a great coincidence. Both items that Showalter chose to connect in his title with an ampersand play starring roles on the album — the edible half the subject of a blistering spoken word/mantra/chant song about the makings of a perfect sandwich (mustard is the skeleton key, even if a box of No. 2 pencils and bread is involved) and the cat half a response to a woman bringing two kittens to her front row seat at the very show recorded for this disc. He’s a master at funny, nerdy assertiveness and confidence and the more steamed he can work himself up to, the better the belly laughs. Mid-way through the album, he’s heard in the background laughing his little head off as buddy Eugene Mirman seductively whispers a commercial to be run during the autumnal season advertising the way apples make a person want to fuck (their words, not mine!). It’s comedy you don’t quite get from “Two And A Half Men.” Showalter contributes a regal and dignified reading here in this space, cutting a few lines from a flashback scene of a fancy dinner party from P.D. James’ mystery novel, Cover Her Face. Sounds like a money shot gag done in a British accent.
“Michael Showalter Official Site”:http://www.michaelshowalter.net
“J Dub Records”:http://www.jdubrecords.org