A Quick Picker-Upper

Braunger's online stand-up album soaks up pop culture detritus to hilarious effect.

Comedian Matt Braunger isn’t necessarily an innovator or extraordinarily unusual as a performer, but on his new MP3-only album, “Soak Up The Night,” he truly sells every piece of material, even with the occasional surreal touch.

That material is similar at times, in delivery and subject matter, to bits previously heard from Dane Cook, Aziz Ansari, Will Ferrell and Denis Leary, but it’s Braunger’s unique control and deployment of soft and loud voices -- sometimes brief impersonations -- that make it special.

One such highlight comes in the track “Doors Whopper,” where Braunger plays on many rock fans’ tendency to gravitate to Jim Morrison fandom when younger, then realize the singer was really just a bellowing drunk, comparing him to one’s friends after a night of drinking yelling out what fast food they want, repeatedly.

Braunger performs another moment like this in “Lifting Weights To The Smiths,” imitating Morrissey’s voice to great effect, and telling a story about how Southern California Hispanic gangs for some baffling reason are fans of Morrissey. “No, he’s bisexual,” Braunger imagines one saying in a Mexican accent when told, tauntingly, that Morrissey is gay.

Even though his act is largely drawn from pop culture fodder in different subjects, Braunger makes it just as much fun as Dave Attell does his own tales of drunken debauchery and perversion. His performing abilities and high energy delivery make “Soak Up The Night” one of those comedy albums that can bear up to repeated listens, growing on you more every time.