Sex is good, and funny

Mitch Fatel’s easy-thinking set gets big laughs at Rumor’s

NICK MCMAHON VOLUNTEER STAFF

Mitch Fatel
Rumor’s Comedy Club
♥♥♥1/2 out of 5

Before Friday night, I thought a set full of awful sex jokes would be reserved for amateur comics. The exception is Mitch Fatel, a young, established New York comic, who has appeared on Jay Leno more than 20 times as a mock journalist — a job worthy of veteran comics Dave Chappelle and Harland Williams.

Not only was Fatel’s set 99 per cent dirty jokes, but he even had the nerve to punctuate some jokes with “I’m very funny,” and then grin from ear to ear, bathing in the audience’s laughter. He somehow gets away with it due to his innocent honesty. Exaggerating his seemingly low IQ and slow speech, he gives sexual humor a surprising freshness.

His segueways from joke to joke were effortless, as he shamelessly flirted with an attractive young girl to set up subsequent jokes. One conversation went: “What did you do before you came to the show? Did you shower?” As she shook her head, he said, “You dirty girl.” These kinds of jokes would usually end off with his signature whispered, creepy voice “that’s so hot . . . .”

He spent many other improvisations bugging another young guy, who he claimed to have seen in a gay porn film. In describing the film, he said the director must have become so impatient waiting for the girl to arrive that the two guys were ordered to start without her. He went on to comment on lesbian porn, the problem being that if he showed up to a lesbian sex scene, in his fantasy, they would want nothing to do with him. His lesbian/gay humour was received well because it was borne more of ignorance than homophobia.

Fatel plays a lot on male stereotypes, much like Tim Allen minus the toolbox and sport jokes. Basing everything from his perspective, his material works because he refrains from generalizing men. Rather he uses his own obsession with the female body to speak for the sex-crazed stereotypical guy. At one point he criticized the term “doggy-style,” reflecting that it’s “a dirty name for such a beautiful act,” to loosely quote him.

In a slightly empathetic rant, he imagined what it would be like to be the woman in this position, only to conclude that he wouldn’t enjoy it. Again, this is what attracts the audience to him; his matter-of-fact honesty when it comes to sex. He makes little reference to relationships, and stays focused on the act itself, just as when he described Internet porn — “oh my God, I love that porno.” He described sexual organs and positions like an infatuated, horny 13 year-old boy.

Mitch also proved to the audience that he can do observational humour without going sexual, which offered a great contrast. He opened up the set by making fun of Rumor’s Comedy Club and its hideous paint-job and ’80s carpet design, which immediately won audiences over, proving that he doesn’t need to be crude all the time.

In addition, he scored big when he ventured into self-deprecation, describing himself as “the closest thing to retarded.” On an island of mentally challenged, he insisted that he’d be the chosen king because of his meat-slicing ability.

Due to the young audience, however, I can understand why he’d stick to sex jokes — like any great comedian, he tweaked his set to fit the demographic. An audience also appreciates the comic who knows himself and his limits, yet doesn’t box himself in — imagine Jerry Seinfeld trying to do physical humor. Nonetheless, it would have been nice to see him tackle other areas with his child-like enthusiasm.