There has to be something on the ‘Y’ chromosome in men that makes us channel surf. Perhaps it is a modern incarnation of our primordial hunting instinct but it is a fact that all members of our gender will rapidly move from channel to channel. This endeavor is a lot more fun for us since the inception of the hundreds of channels on cable. Well, one late night I was sitting in front of my TV performing this age old male ritual and something caught my eye causing me to stop on Comedy Central. It was a stand up act like most people alive today I have seen hundreds of such acts. What made me stop my surfing was the look of this man, Drew Hastings. He was dressed completely in black, thick black horned rim glasses with a tussle of light brown hair atop his head going off in every direction. He looked a lot like the coffee addicted character on MAD TV, His odd look may have halted by browsing but it was his routine that kept me on that channel. He is the kind of comedian that I enjoy the most. Hastings is acerbic, dry and a true curmudgeon, my favorite sort of comedian. As I sat there alone in a dark room illuminated only by the glow of the television I found myself laughing out loud. After a plethora of the same old stand up comedy I found someone who is truly talented and darkly funny.

Much to my delight I found the same routine he did on Comedy Central was coming to DVD released through Image Entertainment. I immediately contact their marketing rep and arranged for a screener. Hastings is a tall man coming in at 6’6". On stage he towers over his audience with a commanding presence. His combination of angst with self-deprecating humor puts the audience immediately at ease with him. As I began to get some background information on him I found that he only started his stand up career in his thirties. This gives him a more mature viewpoint of comedy that is impressive. He was almost immediately a cult favorite in the mid west and when he appeared on the ‘Tonight Show’ he received a standing ovation. For this special he returned to his roots filming in the mid west, specifically Toledo, Ohio at the Valentine Theatre. On his web site Hastings muses about his special. During normal hours they would bleep out any sexually suggestive words yet every single commercial break was for a ‘Girls Gone Wild Video’. This is typical of his skewed world view. He finds humor in the juxtaposition of everyday things and twists it into something unforgettable. Just in case you are wondering the DVD is uncensored and does not have commercials for those wild college girls.

Like most stand up comedians Hastings works on a bare stage with only a microphone stand and a stool. He enters to rousing applause and places his coffee container on the stool. He gets right into things calling his glasses his Al Sharpton frames; big, black and you can sere right through them. He is not going to pull his punches or worry about offending those with delicate sensibilities or into political correctness. The then quickly transitions into the first of many stories about his girlfriend. When they were starting their relation Hastings had a Cadillac with vanity plates that read ‘Jew Canoe’ and they decided to take a road trip along the famous route 66. The get to Missouri and he admits he doesn’t like the people there very much. Hastings is not the type to bow to convention or hide his feelings; he just lets it rip. The strange thing here is unlike many other comedians there is no sense of hate in this stories, they just what they are, discourse from a very opinionated man. While in Southern Missouri they visit an exotic animal park. He doesn’t want to go but a little way down the road they see another such park and they stop. He notices that the girl selling the tickets is missing part of one arm and he just knows it wasn’t an industrial accident; it had to be torn off so he has to wonder about the safety in the park. All of the tales he tells seem to ring true. He cuts these bizarre experiences that he shares with his audience from his life only with his unique twist added. He continues on musing about saying ‘I love you’ while in the heat of passion but you don’t really mean it. He claims that since 18 he has been in 10 serious relationships and wonders how astronomical the odds must be to meet that many screwed up women in a row.

While most stand up comedians are much younger this doesn’t bother Hastings at all, He uses his age of 52 to the best possible advantage. One story is titled on the disc ‘Healthy is a Pre-Cancerous Condition’ while another has the title ‘The World According to AARP’. He talks about how difficult it is to act cool after fifty. He is standing their in a Hugo Boss suite with Gold Bond powder between his toes. He claims the only exercise he gets now is mood swings. The part of the special that initial grabbed my attention that night of channel surfing is when Hastings talks about him and his girlfriend moving to a farm. He has been a farmer, in the loosest possible sense of the word, for about two years. He doesn’t know how he even swung it; he states that his credit score is 6. He goes into the rigors of farm life; having to get up early, 10:30 to 11:00 each morning. Hastings speaks about going hunting with his cat and using farm tools. One in particular gets his special attention, the chain saw. Hastings calls it the only product that if you follow the directions it can still kill or maim you. One of the funniest stories is about him wanting to go Coyote hunting. The camouflaged outfits were too expensive so he only got the wallet but he lost that the first time he dropped it in the woods. He bought a rife with a high powered scope but never managed to shoot anything. One day his girlfriend was in the distance tying to get his attention. He couldn’t find the binoculars so he pointed the rife at her to look through the scope. For some reason she had a real problem with that. Also caught in his sights is the difference in drug use between a twenty and fifty year old. The young thinks of cocaine and pot when you talk about drugs. For someone of Hastings’ age his mind now goes to Paxil and Viagra.

This is a real treat to watch. It would be a perfect thing to watch while you have some friends over for diner and drinks. Hastings has a knack of making the most mundane things come to light with humor and insight.