Originally Published August 29, 2011
The beauty of DOUG BENSON is his ability to instantly mesh with his audience through a casual delivery that never once sounds forced. Now, there’s a good chance that the weed plays a big role in this, as you can hear the smile on Benson’s face as if he’s a smoking buddy taking a hit from the bong and giving you some humorous commentary as he exhales a hefty blast of THC-enhanced second-hand smoke into the air of a small room that probably lacks proper ventilation. There’s a chance you’ve known such a guy in your lifetime, though a few of you may not fess up to it.
On his new album POTTY MOUTH (order the CD+DVD), Benson shares his world through adventures at 7-11 (“Never forget”) and in the Twitterverse (more in the next sentence), with a sense of familiarity and spontaneity that comes with being forever-connected. Though he only follows 420 users on Twitter, Benson boasts over 278,424 (as of this writing) followers himself, and they play right into his act. As he stands before an audience on April 20th, 2011 for the recording of the album, Benson shares tweets arriving in real-time, while sharing some of his own 140-characters-or-less quips. Sure, there’s a question of whether or not the audience should throw down some cash to watch somebody read his twitter, but that’s used for comedic effect here as well – it’s part of the joke when The Audience is Tweeting.
POTTY MOUTH plays like a stream-of-consciousness affair despite being a calculated one. At one point, Benson begins a self-critique, discussing which parts of his first set will be kept for the final release, making the call before his second set is even recorded. It almost makes you wonder what hearing full recordings of both sets would’ve revealed in terms of nuance, but the 13 tracks presented here should be enough to keep you happy through repeat listens for quite some time.
Bottom Line: As stated by a rogue TSA Agent used as a character in Known Pot Smoker, “This guy’s a funny f’er.“
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
POTTY MOUTH is available as a digital edition from iTunes, or as a CD + DVD set that includes all 6 episodes of THE BENSON INTERRUPTION as seen on Comedy Central.
