Sometimes, you just have to tell it like it is.
Dave Attell, host of Comedy Central's "Insomniac," isn't afraid to speak rawly and without reserve. Nothing is taboo with Attell, who performed Friday at Raleigh's Charlie Goodnight's Comedy Club before a crowd that was at capacity and then some.
From the hypnotic appeal of a dog's penis to his midget friend, affectionately named "Baby Shoes," Attell kept the crowd shocked but laughing. His uncensored honesty about his personal life and twisted thought processes was a refreshingly genuine shot of vulgar hilarity.
"There is a southern feel for fun here," Attell said. "They like it down and dirty, and everyone is so intelligent that it is kind of intimidating."
But Attell proved that he could run with the best of them. He took what could have been offensive ' sexist stereotypes, quirks of relationships, lewd allusions to every orifice on the human body -- and shoved it right in the faces of crowd members. Everything was so ridiculous and raunchy that there was never any doubt he was joking -- he was just having a good time like everybody else.
Attell bounced between subjects with a seemingly random flow that felt more like a train wreck than a stand-up routine -- but it worked. His transitions were as strange and unconventional as saying, "Let's talk about this," or pretending the audience was talking to him and saying, "What? More about masturbation? OK."
Attell even went so far as to testify that the fat around his belly was, like a tattoo, a statement about himself.
