STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Gary Gulman

June 12th, 2012

Grant Trimboli

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Gary Gulman. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

What better way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Stand-Up Tuesdays than by featuring one of my personal favorite comedians, Gary Gulman, who just last week released a brand-new full-length CD? No Can Defend is Gulman’s third recording, and his first to be released through Comedy Central Records.

Gulman, who hails from Boston, has been performing comedy for over a decade and his latest effort is nothing short of a testament to his uniquely hilarious talents. Often pointing out the absurdity in what are not just everyday situations (let’s face it, not many of us take the time to examine the plight of the semi-colon or take role-playing to quite the extreme Gulman does), Gulman’s humor is virtually effortless.

“More ten-year-old Jews have played Chunk in The Goonies,” Gulman states, describing the collapsible basketball rims installed during his time with his local Jewish Community Center’s youth basketball program, “than have smashed a backboard playing basketball. There wasn’t a kid who could grab net, yet there were collapsible rims.”

Gulman’s ability to take the easily overlooked and turn it on its head with hilarious observation is unrivaled. From CD players to Netflix, from the @ sign to “Hammer Time” in the 90’s, Gulman takes the seemingly mundane to a whole new level in his new digital album, recorded in October of 2011 at the Metropolitan Room in New York City.

Hugely respected by his peers, Gulman has toured extensively across the country, as well as starring in the HBO documentary series, “Tourgasm.” He was a runner-up on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” and has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” in addition to his highly rated one-hour COMEDY CENTRAL special, “Boyish Man.”

Having had the privilege of seeing Gulman perform in his home clubs throughout Boston, I can’t help but think that No Can Defend is, by far, the most technically perfect of his releases to date. With a knack for winging it at times as he hones his skills in his hometown, the new album offers a much more focused Gulman – even though he’ll do his best to throw you off from that thought. Last month, Gulman recorded his upcoming DVD special at Boston’s The Wilbur theater, which included a good amount of material from No Can Defend – all of which was spot-on and precisely as he tells it on his album, proving just how prepared and capable Gulman is. It’s not often you’ll hear the comic tell the same joke twice, in exactly the same fashion – a refreshing change for Gulman. Now, for those of you outside of Boston, you’ve no way of knowing just how prepared and ‘on’ Gulman is, but one listen of No Can Defend will do more than enough to show you what you’ve been missing.

When he’s not pointing out the insanity in our daily lives that is easily overlooked, Gulman offers his audience a few tips for beating the recession, which range from only purchasing senior movie tickets and helping one’s self to free candy upon filling prescriptions. “Anything you can fit on the rack underneath the grocery cart is free,” Gulman suggests, “as long as you can maintain eye contact with the cashier throughout the transaction. I recommend a lot of key dangling and an occasional ‘whoop! Whoop!’”

Gary Gulman is a refreshingly hilarious comedian who should be prominently featured in your comedy collection. Never one to pander to his audience or get preachy and overly-opinionated, this veteran comedian will have you laughing your little derrieres off from start to finish, and then randomly here and there afterwards. Download No Can Defend today by Gary Gulman at iTunes and find out why audiences nationwide are falling in love with him.