This is a comedy special by Ron White. You know, that other guy from the Blue Collar Comedy Tours from the turn of the century. No, the “Here’s your sign” guy is Bill Engvall (whose book Just a Guy: Notes from a Blue Collar Life I listened to in 2019). Of course, the big two are Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy. I get the sense Ron White is really the forgotten man in the bunch.
And, to be honest, that rating probably matches the reality. I have enjoyed Jeff Foxworthy for decades; I’ve seen a Larry the Cable Guy comedy special or two; and I enjoyed the couple of Blue Collar Comedy tour specials I’ve seen. But that’s probably despite White, not because of him.
You know, I get it: Comedy shows are going to have their off-color moments. Gallagher had a couple moments. Charlie Berens, the Manitowoc Minute guy, whom I saw earlier this month, even Charlie Berens had a moment or two that made my poor wife cringe because she was at a comedy show with her children, and she was afraid she would have to explain a joke or maybe she was afraid she would not now that her boys go to public school.
But Ron White’s show, or this one perhaps, did not offer many topical insights into the foibles of human nature that did not involve being drunk, having sex (especially receiving oral sex), or drugs. One party situation or sexual situation after another, and finis!
Not my bag, baby.
I do have to wonder if comedy has followed a similar arc to pop music: that it increasingly has to cater to an audience who comes out to the clubs, and those are the party people and not the, you know, adults. Or maybe there are diminishing adults in the world to entertain.
One good thing came from watching this: I discovered a new jazz artist, Margo Rey.
At the time of this comedy special, Margo was Ron White’s “wife,” although I guess it came out when they parted that they’d never actually gotten married, but she did get a settlement from him as the court found that she was his common-law wife after being with him a number of years.
She sings Latin-influenced jazz and pop. I bought her album Habit because I had some digital credits from Amazon, and it was the only album available digitally. A later album, The Roots of Rey–Oh, wait a minute, that, too, is available with digital credits. Maybe it’s newly available? At any rate, that looks to be more straightforward jazzy and contains “This Masquerade” which is standard enough to compare jazz artist to jazz artist.
Looks like I’ll be placing some slow Amazon orders to bank enough credits to buy that album as well.
The Netflix special that came after this album was also pretty tepid in terms of the funny. My theory was that his first “hit” album, “Drunk in Public,” had stuff he’d honed over the years back when he was hungry. Since then I think he’s just gone on the road with whatever comes to mind, and a rich Ron White is a grasp the low-hanging fruit Ron White.
My take: https://friarsfires.blogspot.com/2018/10/an-offer-you-might-not-refuse.html
Yeah, a bunch of his humor came from situations where he talks about how rich he is, his private jet, his trips abroad.
To which I could not relate in addition to not finding these more exotic jokes about drugs and oral sex particularly insightful or amusing.
Again, I am not sure I am the target audience. For much on anything these days. I think the target demo lowered just as I was aging out of it anyway.