Jay Larson expresses his view of the world through one situation at a time on his new album, Human Math. He talks directly to the crowd, giving them the instructions of how to proceed through life’s everyday happenings. He has something to say about grocery shopping, babysitters, and dealing dummies. He breaks down the ratio in of tea to lemonade in an arnold palmer. The guy is an expert family man. He has the wife and kids, and he has the perspective to see what is going on around him.
Despite living between New York City and Los Angeles, Larson’s east coast persona shines through the entire album. The starkness of his Boston like accent starts from the top. The heaviness of vowels and lack of hard “r” sounds, creates a subtle charm. He’s a guy who knows a few things. He’s a guy who drunkenly does left bicep curls and feels ok about it. As he states, “This is the guy I’ve become.” Perhaps it is this voice that keeps the comic from sounding pretentious or overbearing when describing what works and doesn’t work in life’s complicated scenarios.
He also has a skill of gliding through the darkness of his humor. When he tells a story of child endangerment, the comic pleads with the audience to look past a situation where a stranger breaks into a house to play with children and to instead look at the idea of the stranger being a “midget clown.” The bit is layered with amusement. He makes the possibility of children in harm a real joke while also putting himself in as a character on stage the audience can laugh at. He does this again with a blind man. He creates this character of a visually impaired fellow into an a-hole of sorts, and the stand-up gets his by cleverly robbing him of $100.
Larson is a schemer. He does not settle for the mediocre occurrence. He listens to black women and pressures a rubber ducky into suicide. His roles range from observational and on the sidelines to the instigator. He’s sheepish and funny too. He finds a way to justify his decisions throughout the album only to create a heightening of the joke. One such example is a bit where he attempts to yell at another driver for poor driving. The driver aggravatedly replies, “We just drivin.” Larson takes a beat to appreciate the simplicity of the statement, and he continues to go at the driver by pointing out she has a dog on her lap. The driver then tells the comic, “you have a dog in the passenger seat,” referring to the comic’s wife. He takes another beat to appreciate this comeback. The progression is funnier as Larson avoids getting offended and finds the humor of the interaction.
That is his comedy. This east coast man who has been around in a world filled with “Dumb, gullible, annoying people.” He does the Human Math and comes out the winner.
Be sure to pick up Jay Larson: Human Math right here.
