Title: Chunks
Who's it for?: Comedy fans
Who made it?: J. Elvis Weinstein
Where is it?: 800 lb Gorilla Records, Amazon
Length: 46 minutes
A pre-emptive note ahead of my review: J. Elvis Weinstein pronounces his name to rhyme with Albert Einstein and he added the Elvis because he likes Elvis Costello and so his initials would become the acronym JEW. He had to do this because there was already a Josh Weinstein when he joined the Writers Guild, and neither he nor the Simpsons writer have any connection to Harvey Weinstein who pronounces his name with "steen" as differentiated from "stine" at the end. Don't confuse him for that predator guy because both Josh's are gentlemen and professionals I presume seeing as they stay out of news about social machines that hurt women.
When I first met J. Elvis Weinstein I asked him if he had a standup album because I wanted to know who he was individually among the Mystery Science Theater 3000 writers who had regrouped into Cinematic Titanic at live shows where I could meet them. He didn't, but he'd been writing and performing standup at Acme Comedy Club in Minnesota for nearly his whole life. Didn't he think it would be a good idea to archive something so important and key to his existence? He told me he hadn't really thought about it much but supposed he might get around to it eventually. Ten years later his first album shows me I was right about him and there are great mental depths to be discovered that just weren't convenient for a lot of people until now.
Chunks is J. Elvis Weinstein's first comedy album, but it's not a beginner effort at all. I had been excited about him as an individual comedian because I could tell from his blogs on the now defunct Cinematic Titanic website that he is possibly the tightest joke writer on that team. He improvised effectively in the KTMA episodes of Mystery Science Theater, and his Twitter jokes are well structured, and there are many fun surprises in the order of ideas to be presented found in Chunks. For example, he writes a great sexual harrassment joke wherein he is both the perpetrator and the victim because he is talking to himself about being his own boss, thereby taking the reactionary gendered witch hunt out of the debate leaving only the situation to be avoided by everyone. He is a master of assessing and then manipulating perspectives. I can only conclude that he had a long queue of other projects as a producer as on Freaks and Geeks, America's Funniest Home Videos, and the Greg Kinnear show, and enough gigs doing standup and playing live music, that he actually had a huge time buffer before he could get around to this album.
Chunks is a time capsule of Mr. Weinstein's finest standup. He discusses his mixed faith marriage and interprets Judaism in comparison to Christianity in a way I don't hear from random sampling of Jewish standup comedy but do hear regularly from him with Andy Kindler on Thought Spiral. Unlike a lot of Jewish comics, they don't hyperbolize escaping from Judaism like many standups do as they escape parental control and childhood. They like Judaism at least in part, and they make it sort of inviting and show that they get comfort from it as a family foundation. Even while Josh says he doesn't get the symbolism of either Easter or Passover and that Christianity has more miracles than Judaism, I remember on Thought Spiral that he memorized the Ten Commandments movie during Passover and I think he actually likes it whether ironically or seriously because he returns to it almost as much as to The Boys From Brazil and Dr. Josef Mengele's scientific experiment war crimes which are less endearing and not in this routine. And his slight chagrin at Christian miracles is a softer critique than, say, Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic routine.
Edgier chunks contain Josh's many times serving jury duty, which he says he gets because he must have "resting justice face." He compares jury duty in Los Angeles to community theater-- "You watch a bad play, and if you don't like it you send somebody to jail." If the Explicit tag on the album isn't enough for you, I will give a trigger warning for you that there are many descriptions of violence from both humans and animals. Josh describes in graphic detail the most violent court cases he was in the jury for or read in the headlines. He was also in at least one fight in his life that he was called to and stayed in somehow. He prefers animal violence to the true crime stories his wife enjoys. I think his overall perspective is a healthy one that surveys other people's violent moments as theater with consequences that can easily be avoided. He doesn't focus on the rush of being in a fight so much as the character analysis of everyone involved, and his low energy deadpan delivery leads me to believe that he holds skepticism about fighting and talks himself out of it.
MST3K and Cinematic Titanic fans should note that none of his music jokes, the earworm medley pop hits radio station break, or his Steve Perry impersonation from the Cinematic Titanic shows made it on to the album. He didn't play bass or keyboard either, though his music is regularly on Thought Spiral with songs also from his wife Allison MacLeod and cohost/comedian Andy Kindler. This album is a self introduction to people who have managed to not know who Josh is for this long, and briefly mentions he has a lead role in a movie also just now because even after suggesting the people calling might want an actor and not a standup comedian/producer, the people calling demanded it because the role is one he is perfect for and he is too good to ignore for The Fiddling Horse.
He hasn't been Tom Servo since he was a college student, but his wry delivery doesn't entirely eclipse a good heart and healthy psychology which has been with him for life. Aside from producing and music, standup is his best expertise and you won't find a better first standup album to study and learn from than Chunks by J. Elvis Weinstein on 800 Lb Gorilla Records and Amazon.
