Andrew Packer is a comic for modern times. Sharp and silly, Packer’s best jokes are accessibly honest takes that make use of funny voices. A parade of different lilts and pitches comes out of Packer like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do them. With his fresh takes and characters, Packer is reminiscent of Andy Samberg, or an early career Brian Regan with his latest special, On Guard.
Andrew Packer’s voices are one-of-a-kind.
In an early joke, Packer discusses how his body hair is like unwieldy and random city construction. He utilizes a voice in the bit that manages to capture a tough, direct, unhelpful New York construction worker, with each use of the voice giving a different aspect of the impression. The tone is uniquely surprising, and the joke benefits greatly from the qualities Packer builds to a fully-realized voice as the joke continues.
Elsewhere, Packer has this observation:
“Our dicks are inflatable. Nothing of value inflates. Neck pillows. Noise makers. Air mattresses. Everyone of them lose their form before you’re done with them”
The audience laughs uproariously, but then he tags the joke with an impression of a man hearing the joke and getting defensive, saying that his dick “is like an above-ground pool” with a hard shell. Whatever you’re imagining the voice to be is incorrect. Rather than opt for a lower-register idiot, or a slightly pitched-up weasel, Packer finds a middle ground that feels both more knowable and more comic at the same time, much to the audience’s delight.
Packer is clever.
After a joke about proposing to his girlfriend near a cliff, so that if she said no, maybe she fell, gets a mixed reaction. Packer calls it out. He blames himself, saying:
“I’ve got one of those noses, you know, that says don’t go on a hike with me alone. It’s too sharp. It’s like a sundial. Literally, if I go outside, man, it reads ‘your time is up.’
Here, the joke is pulling together two disparate ideas. The first is that Packer’s appearance (white, flat, placid features, the haircut of a 1980s action movie henchman), is not dissimilar from that of many murderers. The second is that sun dials measure the time by reading the position of the sun. So, in the punchline, of “your time is up,” Packer is able to pull these two threads together to clever, hilarious effect.
Packer is proudly Canadian.
Packer is proudly from the North, and loves taking loving aim at his country. After introducing his thesis that Canadians love to get drunk and look at water, he shares how sometimes people will insist the Canadian pastime is hockey. Packer replies, “That’s just another form of getting drunk and looking at water. We’re arguing the same point here, sir.”
When it comes to canoe culture, Packer is aware how easily they tip, and how beloved they are in Canada.
“My last trip to a cottage, I watched three Persian men. They fell out of the canoe and into the lake. I was like, ‘oh my god, they’re learning our culture!’ It was a beautiful moment man. The government was there clapping for them.”
After clarifying that the Persian men were family (Packer’s fiance is Persian), moves on to kill with material about white culture in the country.
Andrew Packer's latest special On Guard, is available now to watch for free on YouTube! If you'd like to support Andrew further, you can also pay to watch the special on 800 Pound Gorilla & name your own price.
Stream & download the audio album from the special on 800 Pound Gorilla!
