.Brent Weinbach

The Night Shift

It’s a testament to Brent Weinbach’s comic persona that he can get a
laugh by repeating the word “prego” over and over again, as he does in
“Making Sense,” a sketch on his new comedy album, The Night
Shift
. The sketch opens with Weinbach explaining how he got into
the “highly gifted” track at his elementary school, despite being
“retarded.” (“I was retarded, but I worked out so much on my
Soloflex that even my brain muscles got buff like the rest of my
body.”) Mid-reverie, he recalls an encounter with a street artist in
Venice, Italy. Their conversation ends with the artist chanting “prego”
with increasingly weird intonation. First he rolls the “r.” Then he
spits the “p” and slurs the “rego.” Then he muddles all the letters
together and coughs them out, as though “prego” were lodged in his
esophagus. By the 24th “prego,” the word is no longer comprehensible.
Ultimately, “prego” turns into “L’Eggo my Eggo” (per the ad campaign
for Eggo waffles). It’s a strange bit of random association that
perfectly captures Weinbach’s style of humor.

Weinbach enjoys comparing himself to radio monologist Joe Frank,
though the two are actually quite distinct. Frank specializes in weird,
divagating stories that are often more philosophical than they are
funny; he mixes in vintage soul soundtracks that give his words a
hypnotic feel. Weinbach, in contrast, is purely absurd, maniacally
funny, and so far beyond the walls of political correctness that
— well, you’ll either like it or you won’t. Weinbach intercuts
his stories with music, too, but mostly in the form of stand-alone
songs rather than a canned soundscape. The songs are terrific: All
Weinbach originals (outside of his comedy career, he’s a capable jazz
pianist), all sung in a faux-lounge-singer voice, all thematically tied
to the rest of the album. In a way, they present another side of the
famously neurotic Weinbach, who is best known for puerile word-play and
intelligent poop humor. Among the other tracks are some Weinbach oldies
but goodies (e.g., “Substitute Teaching Reprise”) and a penis joke that
he’s refined over several years (“Language”). There’s even a random nod
to the Cleveland hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The Night
Shift
has depth for those who seek it, but a lot of the humor lies
right on the surface. Like the word “prego,” it gets even better with
repetition. (Talent Moat)

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