What I liked
There’s that worn cliché that comedy is tragedy plus time, but in the wrong hands, I’m sorry— it’s just old tragedy. It takes a particular knack to make the traumatic into the truly amusing. There was so much in Carl’s stories that had the potential to be cringeworthy but he was able to make it all truly laughable. I was unfamiliar with the disorder of narcolepsy and it sounds downright terrifying, but there I was laughing along with him. I’ve made a few of the kinds of bad decisions he’s made as well, and they’re still not funny… but there I was laughing along with him. It’s a gift.
What I didn't like
There were a few technical glitches when we attended the show… bad syncing of the music/ sound effects, like that. Possibly that was just a bad day. It did disrupt the continuity a bit, but it didn’t ruin the fun of the show.
My overall impression
I was already long familiar with Carl as an excellent journalist with a knack for weaving a narrative, and possessed of an incisive and self-effacing wit, so it only made sense he’d also be an accomplished performing humorist. This was my first experience of him in that role. I wasn’t disappointed, beholding him string together real life anecdotes into a bizarre, unexpected storyline that kept me laughing and hanging on. The time flew by!
