Photo: Hunter Collins
The point of sketch comedy has always been the same, and that point is silly and fun. The are satirical or even dramatic forms of sketch, but on the whole it is a craft based on being silly. For this reason many people might find it difficult to get in to. (Including myself.) Unlike stand-up there’s usually (usually) no moral or existential lesson to take home, and it doesn’t have that rawness. People don’t tend to hold their favorite sketch dear to their heart like they do with stand-up. Nobody ever says “that sketch really spoke to me, man.” At least not today.
Toronto comic Hunter Collins’ debut sketch album Nincompoop continues this tradition of pure silliness and fun. This is not a criticism at all, and I don’t think he’d take it that way. It would be surprising to find out he’s super bummed his 3 minute and 25 second track trying to get his buddy to eat his ass didn’t speak to the people. (Track 10, ‘Would You Rather’.)
The opening track, ‘Police Cape’, is about a police academy student who seems to think a cop is a kind of superhero who gets to fight crime wearing a cape. It is one of the stronger sketches and sets the comedic tone for the album.
The are a couple of recurring themes through the album, ‘Jim the Unimaginative Sexual Innuendo Guy’ – a guy who is terrible at dirty talk – and ’9-11 Tapes’ – dumb calls to the police. This is a fun strategy to provide some cohesion and narrative to the album. It would perhaps be nice to see more of this in comedy in general.
The production on tracks such as, most notably, ‘Elect Larry Hextal’ is reminiscent of Tim and Eric in its deliberate corniness, catching the vibe of being created by a part time session musician in the San Fernando Valley.
This is a fun debut sketch album. I just hope he considers producing some of the tracks as videos.