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Stand-Up Nostalgia

Gary Gulman channels the absurdities of Generation X's youth for entertaining comedy

 

By Michael Shashoua / Jester Editor-In-Chief

 

Comedian Gary Gulman revels in ’80s and ’90s nostalgia on “No Can Defend,” an MP3 album to be released June 5 by Comedy Central. That nostalgia extends even to the album’s cover, a parody of 1980s teen movies (if this were a record album or even a CD, you could appreciate that a little more).

 

Gulman goes a long way with subjects like Blockbuster Video, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Discmans and JCC teen basketball. He’ll admit to worshipping Hammer and Ice, who get mocked now. “Hammer had a Saturday morning cartoon and a breakfast cereal. Do you know how hard that is to get?” Gulman declares. He also wonders how Blockbuster ever went bankrupt, with its exorbitant late fees. “I love it when I see a Blockbuster location closed down, and you can tell they never power-washed the sign, because ‘Blockbuster’ is still outlined in filth and grime – kinda like their business model,” he says.

 

Gulman applies the same irony to Netflix. “I have 211 movies in my Netflix queue. I’ll die with 100 movies still on my queue. I’ll be on my deathbed saying, ‘Sonny, watch Toy Story 3 for me, find out how the trilogy ends,’” he says.

 

On another piece, “I Stole A Muffin/Jewish President?” Gulman fully indulges his Jewish perspective in stand-up, if you hadn’t guessed that already. “If God’s gonna get upset about me stealing a muffin -- if he’s that petty, I don’t wanna know from him,” says Gulman.

 

With his material and the way he presents it, Gulman shows perfect pitch for Generation X listeners who grew up in the ’80s. He may even be geared to a fan base a bit older than college kids or twenty-somethings, but he does just enough to make his act accessible outside those bounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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© 2005-2018 Michael Shashoua