Daditude

Although Craig Shoemaker is an American Comedy Awards Comedian of the Year award-winner, this standup special originally broadcast on Showtime left me “meh.” Shoemaker is a gifted performer and fine voice actor, but his material is an uneasy blend of Brian Regan-esque riffs on family-friendly topics about married life and having kids, and edgy Denis Leary-type rants featuring profanity that will strike some as particularly gratuitous and jarring. Rarely does he hit a sweet spot of either a fresh or unique take. Jokes about parents who tell their children to bring them something to beat them with is well-trod ground—Bill Cosby mined this vein back in the 60s. I'm showing my age, but the bits that resonated most were his remembrances of boomer culture past, such as pre-remote control black-and-white TVs. (“You don't have a clue what I'm taking about,” he asides to an 18-year-old in the audience, a funny recurring joke). The set concludes with his signature character, “The Lovemaster,” featuring a painfully extended string of euphemisms for male genitalia. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (D. Liebenson)