STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Island Hopper

• Island Hopper: Rock on
• Island Hopper: A tribute to an unforgettable Crandall
• Island Hopper: A bloody good idea for All Hallows Eve

Share and Enjoy [?]

Your little Island Hopper is a big fan of the unexpected (with few exceptions — like when Freshen Up gum first came out, and I bit into it, all unknowing, and nearly upchucked when the burst of sticky gel coated my tongue).

I like things that are more than what they seem on the surface. That first bite of a chocolate mousse that has a kicky chipotle finish. The hilarious comedy film that, days later, still has you mulling over its deeper message. The quiet guy in the corner who, when you go talk to him, has you in stitches with his quick wit.

So I must admit to my own limited expectations when I walked into Captain Brien’s Seafood and Raw Bar and was introduced to headlining comedian Tim Cavanaugh preparing to take the stage.

Cavanaugh, upon first impression, comes across as Pat Boone if he’d been an Amway salesman.

“It’s a really clean show. Family friendly,” said manager Tom Bower over the phone earlier that evening. Great. Yawn, thought I. (I have to confess to enjoying a bit of edgy raucousness in my stand-up.)

And sure enough, Cavanaugh opened his act with a Mr. Rogers demeanor that promised nice, inoffensive, politically correct fun for all ages, strumming out pleasant little ditties on the guitar around his neck.

Until I realized exactly what he was saying in his unctuous nursery-rhyme delivery. The familiar children’s tune of “B-I-N-G-O” became a tale about a hard-drinking farmer: “B-I-N-G-E.” A song about a rabid Detroit basketball fan who collects memorabilia has these lyrics: “I have Piston shorts/I have Piston pants/I have Piston beer mugs/Um, did I hear that right?

Yup, the guy with the thinning gray hair and the big you-can-trust-me smile is up there warbling some ditties that, uh, might have a bit of naughty double meaning.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Cavanaugh has more of an edge to him that you might expect upon first glance. After all, he’s been a regular on the syndicated Bob and Tom Show, a morning-drive radio program heard on stations all over the country, and not exactly known as good clean family entertainment.

But it’s his presentation that sets him apart from the hackneyed shtick of a lot of comedians — that worldly, snarky, I’m-too-cool-for-the-room demeanor that is the stock in trade of a lot of stand-ups.

Cavanaugh’s is more of a Bible-salesman persona. An unassuming Romper Room delivery that makes his clever word play even more hilarious for its total unexpectedness. And too, there are prizes. Who doesn’t like prizes?

After he chats up a couple in the front row and gently zings them for their car, their relationship, their jobs, he offers them “dinner for two” as a palliative — a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

There are chant-alongs: anytime Cavanaugh suggests singing a song, he leads his crowd in a mantra of “Yeah, Tim, sounds like fun,” chanted in unison.

The songs are one of his trademarks — Cavanaugh has whole CDs of the “one-minute songs” he specializes in. There’s the Aerosmith cover he does as a tribute to our gun-happy VP: Cheney’s Got a Gun. There’s the environmentally incorrect Steve Miller cover, I Wanna Fry Up An Eagle, or the other cover tune of Abracadabra he does as a paean to necrophilia: Had Her Cadaver.

What makes his set so inoffensive, though, despite his admittedly off-color moments, is the way he presents it. Cavanaugh doesn’t seem to have come in with much of a pre-thought-out routine. He strums and sings a bit. One song leads him to a memory of a situation he tells you about in his conversational way.

A lot of the evening is spent with Cavanaugh chatting up his audience, finding out things about them that he riffs on hilariously and later works back into the show. He invites them up onstage, picks on them with a friendly smile and a deceptively innocent tone that makes his words take a few moments to sink in. Wait — is he actually insulting my Hyundai? you realize belatedly. (Yes, he is, actually — all night long, in a running joke that never fails to crack up the crowd.)

But it’s impossible to be mad at Cavanaugh for it, because he is utterly lacking the anger and mockery that seems to underlie a lot of comedians’ routines. Cavanaugh just sees things as funny, and wants to bring the audience in on it, not stand above them in judgment.

Captain Brien’s continues providing a revolving door of new comics in their Off The Hook Comedy Club lineup. Among their upcoming headliners is Charlie Murphy, Oct. 18-21, best known from the Chappelle Show, and as Eddie Murphy’s brother; and Jamie Kennedy of film/TV fame Oct. 8-10. And don’t forget Jackie Mason, Feb. 1-9.

---

And don’t forget to write me, my readers, at tiffanythescribe@msn.com!