Tommy Tiernan: Looseby Aaron Riccio

If words are Tommy Tiernan's bullets, then jokes are his gunpowder, and his manic, explitive-heavy charisma is the trigger. His easy smile and giddy motions across the stage (he often skips) enable us to “laugh at the things we’re not supposed to laugh at” and his words are true enough to pierce the heart.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Cracked, the name of Tommy Tiernan’s last stand-up tour in the US, doesn’t really capture the aggressive joke-telling of this Irish comic. Loose, the name of this year’s tour, is much more appropriate. It’s wrong for the right reasons when Tommy’s at his best (tightly wound on a sensitive subject, like God as a selfish fucker, or the following knock-knock joke: “Who’s there?” “Not Mickey’s fucking dad!”). It’s right for the wrong reasons when Tommy ambles between highlights, leaving the audience to chew the cud through some unfortunate dead space. Luckily, there’s very little downtime, and there is a lot of laughter (hyena-like guffaws, up from the root of your soul).

Tommy’s act isn’t the most original (he draws immediate comparison with Dennis Leary), but he does have the saving grace of charisma, and the better grace of some genuinely funny material. It’s not your mother’s humor though: Tommy makes it clear early on that he (like all the Irish) uses “a fundamental darkness” to tell his jokes, and points out that when he first went to a shooting range, he was perturbed to only fire on targets. It’s a happy person he wants.

Well, if words are to be his bullets, then jokes are his gunpowder, and his manic, explitive-heavy charisma is the trigger. His easy smile and giddy motions across the stage (he often skips) enable us to “laugh at the things we’re not supposed to laugh at” and his words are true enough to pierce the heart. As for his jokes, they’re not all winners, but Tommy changes clips fast enough to get away from the blanks and back to his powder keg of material. Everyday observations, mixed with that sarcastic cynicism: “Have a nice day, they say. I don’t want that kind of pressure. I’ll have the kind of day I want.”

Among other things, Mr. Tiernan has a reputation for stirring up trouble with his religious material. Maybe I’m too jaded to tell, but I found him to be going a little too easy on the Church: save for the obligatory pedophiliac preacher joke, and a few remarks about what Jesus would really look like (Danny DeVito-ish), it was pretty light stuff. Plus, Tommy’s delivery sort of abnegates any serious implications he might try to make during his act; early on, he points out that “I’d hate you to think that I know something about something.... These are just words.”

They are just words, and, for the majority of the show, fairly funny ones. This may be a slightly diluted form of the Tommy I’ve heard talk of, but it’s still a set worth seeing. Laughter’s healthy for you, so consider Loose a Get-Out-Of-Gym-Free card, good for burning a heck of a lot of calories in the most enjoyable way.

[Aaron Riccio]

-------------------------------------------------------------
Actor's Playhouse Theater (100 7th Avenue South)
Tickets (212-239-6200): $20.00-$35.00
Performances: Wednesday-Saturday @ 8:00; Saturday @ 11:00PM