Dimitri Martin is probably best known for his occasional “Trendspotting” feature on The Daily Show. He also played the second Third Conchord on Flight of the Conchords. (Notice a theme here?) His new album These are Jokes is frequently brilliant and sometimes self-indulgent. Luckily, the brilliance outweighs the indulgence.
Martin’s style is low-key but goodhearted. In terms of material, he’s reminiscent of the late Mitch Hedberg, with a steady stream of bizarre one-liners. If you have to be reminiscent of somebody, it might as well be Hedberg. It’s all funny, original material, and his presentation is solid.
My only real complaint is the music. He does a lot of musical routines. As gimmicks go, it’s not bad, but it’s distracting. Sometimes, he’s just playing the guitar or keyboard as background for jokes. The music doesn’t serve the jokes, and they would not be less funny if they didn’t have a soundtrack. I’m not sure if he’s trying to distinguish himself with the instruments, but his material is strong enough by itself. It’s his material that distinguishes him.
One of his musical bits is actually a song, but it doesn’t need to be. On the whole, the material is a little weaker here, but there are two or three lines that are so funny, they make the whole song. If he lost the music and just did those two or three lines, it would be a stronger bit.
Of course, his obsession with instrumentation with also gives us the “Personal Information Waltz”, which is a series of funny lines punctuated by guest star Will Forte and what I can only describe as “Yodel Scat”. This is the one part where the music actually adds to the material.
Honestly, it didn’t really bother me at the time, but after my first listening, my immediate reactions was “That was a lot of music”. It really doesn’t take anything away from the comedy, but other than the Will Forte routine, it doesn’t add anything either. It really is great comedy from a young guy with a great future ahead of him. Plus, it includes my new favorite joke: “‘Finger puppet’ sounds OK as a noun….”
Score: Four Beans
And it’s only appropriate to follow up with a look at the Flight of the Conchords’ EP The Distant Future, since Todd and Dimitri both appeared in the season finale. (Doggie Bounce!) It’s a few months old now, but it’s still worth the listen.
Made marginally famous in their HBO series of the same name, Flight of the Conchords is “New Zealand’s fourth best folk parody band”. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clemens are likeably goofy with a hilarious deadpan style. Their songs are catchy and compulsively listenable. The EP, a precursor to their upcoming album, features five songs from the TV series, two performed in concert, as well as some stage banter. By the way, their banter is actually about banter. Trust me, you’ll laugh like a mental patient.
Songs include the bedroom anthem “It’s Business Time”, “If You’re into It”, the hysterical “I’m Not Crying” (“I’m not crying / It’s just been raining…. On my face.”), “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room” (currently playing as my ringback tone), and their most popular song “Robots”. It’s a song performed by robots in the year 2000, you know, years after the robotic uprising. The chorus is the phrase “The humans are dead”, and there’s a binary solo. If that doesn’t make you go out and buy this CD, we will never be friends.
There’s no release date for their album yet, but this is a fantastic appetizer. You should own this EP and listen to it frequently.
Score: Five Beans
