Tears of a Clown

Daily Show's Al Madrigal brings his own personality to the fore in new stand-up special

By Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief

Daily Show correspondent and stand-up comedian Al Madrigal mixes domesticity and pop culture in his new special, “Why Is the Rabbit Crying?” which debuted on Comedy Central on April 26 and arrives in a CD/DVD package on April 30.

The special starts strong and keeps going. Some of Madrigal’s best pieces are toward the beginning half. “Turtleman” is a good example of how he blends the unexpected elements together. Speaking from the perspective of a family man seeing his young kids’ attitudes going off the rails from too much TV, he calls on his failsafe, blocking seemingly innocuous kids shows on the cable box.

It all starts when his six-year-old son tells him, “that’s how I roll,” then his two-year-old daughter “sticks her butt out and says, ‘talk to the booty because the hand is off duty.’” Later, the boy tells poor Al that he’ll beat him up when he’s old. Madrigal wonders where he got that, and his son admits he made it up. “The comic in me had to be a little proud,” he concludes.

There’s more like this in “Cholo Soccer Dad.” If you don’t know, “cholo” is a term for a Hispanic gangster in the L.A. area, or someone who dresses like one. Madrigal marvels at how careful the “cholo” dad was with typing out an information sheet for parents of the kids on the team – no gothic, gangster-style fonts, but “Arial, as it should be…”

Madrigal makes the pieces in this special come alive by fitting his specific mix of pop culture references into his stand-up storytelling. This makes for a vivid and memorable special worth catching. The album package also comes with some bonus features – a Daily Show piece, a “Shorties Watchin’ Shorties” appearance and more.