Word: stand-up
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Stepping in front of a live audience all alone is a pressure-packed moment for any stand-up comedian, but no one seems to handle it worse than Bob Goldthwait. Wavering between what appears to be incapacitating stage fright and drug-induced hysteria, Goldthwait delivers his lines in a choked, trembling voice that regularly erupts into shrieks of agony. "Thank you very . . . thank you very . . . thaaaarrrrgggghhhh!" were the first words from his mouth in a recent HBO special taped at Manhattan's Bottom Line. Two or three more half-finished sentences followed, then an angry shout of defiance: "I never...
...self-doubt to despair. Dianne Wiest (an Oscar nominee for her role in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters) bubbles with fantasies of redemption: she stuffs a pillow under her clothes and says she will have a child; she tells an enigmatic joke and vows to become a stand-up comic. Each gently deflects the other in a tender marriage, unharrowed by grief...
...yuckmeisters of all races, creeds and colors would be able to add several minutes to their routines merely by poking fun at our dour Duke. It wouldn't be long after the good governor announced any intention to become master of ceremonies of the comedy club of life that stand-up comics would start dishing out lines like, "Hey--you hear about Dukakis' economical version of a Star Wars defense shield? Yeah, in case of nuclear attack, we all just hide under his nose...
...while Beantown has sent many a talented stand-up cut-up out into the brightly lit, dimly conceived world of big-time comedy, it hasn't gotten much back in return. Top headliners don't come to town too often and homegrown prodigies such as Leno and Wright only pop in for occasional, surprise appearances at their old haunts. As a result, Boston comedy has been suffering from the excruciating boredom that inevitably results when the same young comics--those who can't break into the big time--perform at the same old clubs weekend after weekend...
...funny guy. A graduate of Cornell, a private college in upstate New York, Maher's slight lisp, devilish chuckle and sly grin are those of the eternal class clown. His 45-minute routine--which nonetheless seemed to end too soon--traversed all of the stock subjects of stand-up. But his observations and insights on life at home, life at college, getting older, drugs, politics and, of course, sex, were original and idiosyncratic, qualities sorely lacking from most local material...