In Los Angeles, they would not know what to do with the blunt, balding and slightly pudgy Jimmy Carrane.
In New York, the very notion of a fellow doing a show that is composed mainly of chatting about his grandmother and the fellow who runs the local video store would be viewed as overly folksy, too Midwestern and lacking sufficient edge.
But in Chicago, a lovable loser can not only find an enthusiastic audience but also can be considered an heir to a great and noble comedic tradition.
A decade or so ago, Carrane’s comedic monologue “I’m 27, I Still Live at Home and I Sell Office Supplies” became one of the simplest but funniest shows ever to appear at the Annoyance Theatre. Attracting big crowds, it ran for more than a year and Carrane became a poster child for mooching off your parents.
Carrane’s modus operandi could be entirely discerned from his title. Adopting the persona of the underachiever, this angst-ridden, self-doubting man simply told truthful stories about his past failings, his half-baked life goals, and his passionate desire to delay adulthood. It was all based in pain.
And judging from his popularity back then, plenty of people understood where he was coming from.
Given this performer’s inability to actually make progress in life, it seems appropriate that it took Carrane (and his director Gary Ruderman) no less than 10 years to come up with a sequel. “Jim Carrane is Living in a Dwarf’s House” is playing at the Second City e.t.c. in a midweek slot and, on opening night, a few familiar faces from the Annoyance glory days were lurking at the back of the house.
This show is even funnier than the previous one.
Part of this is because Carrane is now of sufficient age that his stories of cheap apartments and sexual loneliness have taken on a vaguely tragic air. Or they would, at least, if Carrane’s life was not so numbingly insignificant.
But there’s also been a striking development in Carrane’s comedic technique. As before, his subjects appear mundane. There’s a long monologue about his grandmother’s birthday party and a section on how awkward he feels when his roommate’s girlfriend stays the night.
But Carrane now layers his gags so that his painful comic universe becomes more and more absurdly funny as his hour-long show continues.
And along with a simply hysterical segment in which this superb writer-performer describes his sexual fantasy in the terms of a Chinese restaurant, the show contains a veritable feast of one-line gags that have you roaring with laughter.
How perversely appropriate that Carrane only gets his moment in the spotlight on two of the most boring nights of the week.
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“Jim Carrane is Living in a Dwarf’s House”
When: Through March 14
Where: Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St.
Phone: 312-642-8189
