STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Erik Allen

October 9th, 2012

Grant Trimboli

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

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

It’s amazing what someone will do for $20. It’s also kind of hilarious.

It’s not often that you see a comedy album from someone who isn’t yet a headliner, but then again, you probably haven’t heard any of Erik Allen’s insanely hilarious material….yet. Allen broke onto the Minneapolis/St. Paul comedy scene in 2007 when he won Acme Comedy Company’s Funniest Person in the Twin Cities Contest. He appeared in the 2010 Boston Comedy Festival and tours clubs and colleges across the country. He’s been profiled in Artworks Magazine, and just released his second album, Your Feature Performer is Wasted via Stand Up! Records.

At a quick half-hour in running time, Your Feature Performer is Wasted showcases Allen’s unique and quirky sense of humor as he personifies his drinking habits by referencing “Drunk Me” and “Sober Me” throughout his set – successfully giving it an adventure-like feel as he takes his audience along on his constant struggle to take control of “Drunk Me”.

“Sometimes I’ll have so much to drink on Saturday night that I’ll wake up on Sunday morning,” Allen describes, “and I’ll find pre-made breakfast in my refrigerator. I live alone.”

Recorded live at Minneapolis’s famed Acme Comedy Club, Your Feature Performer is Wasted is Allen’s chance to confront his drunk self and get some clarity on a few things: When did you learn how to pick a lock? Why are you the Goldilocks of apartment buildings? Where’s Waldo? Why do you have better recipes and access to English muffins? What the hell is a “Ranch Daniels” and is $20 really enough to drink that? Who wrote “Sorry!” in that pile of vomit?

Allen’s sense of humor is almost delightfully naïve, while at the same time tainted with the reality of his own drunken antics – all of which he’s able to channel into pure comedy gold.

“Never get drunk in costumes. Don’t do it,” Allen warns. “Last Halloween I was like, ‘I’m gonna dress up like a giant ninja, go to a Halloween party.’ So I do that, I’m at the party and I’m hammered – because I was drinking – with both my hands. I was walking downstairs at this party and I realized I am falling. And at this point I have two decisions: I can fall, and look like an idiot…or, I can flip. And land this shit. I am a ninja, plan B it is.”

The fact that Drunk Erik is just so damn likeable plays massively into the album’s success…while bemoaning drunken regrets is certainly nothing new in comedy, Allen more than owns his drunken ways and possesses a drunk self-awareness that most can only aspire to.

“We were both up in the air, bumping chest to chest now, and I don’t know how to fight,” Allen admits, describing a run-in with an angry frat boy. “Yeah, so what I did – what I had to do – when he came in for that chest bump, I hugged this other dude. And that other dude just ran away.”

Do yourself a favor today and pick up Erik Allen’s Your Feature Performer is Wasted today at Amazon.com via Stand Up! Records. With his fresh take on frat boys, drunk girls and immature friends, Allen is sure to leave you laughing long after the album is finished.