LIVE (Comedy): Demetri Martin/Erin Harkes @ Troy Music Hall, 05/20/2022

Comedian Demetri Martin’s offbeat observations kept a full house at The Troy Music Hall in fits of perpetual laughter on Friday night.  “We say a head of lettuce-why not a dick of cucumber?  A testicle of kiwi?”  The self-described “man too old for his haircut” delivers idiosyncratic deadpan one-liners reminiscent of comics like Mitch Hedberg and Stephen Wright. 

Looser in person than in his TV appearances, Martin was obviously working on new material and asked multiple times if anyone had anything they wanted to talk about.  When someone suggested “Roe v. Wade!” Martin admitted he’s not a topical, political comedian and proved it by riffing on the use of v. rather than vs and not the issue itself.  Martin was frequently sipping from a water bottle, clearly reacting to the stillness of the historic hall’s 19th-century airflow.  His trademark large sketch pad full of ingenious satirical cartoons, graphs, charts, and Venn diagrams was a hilarious highlight of the show.  A bit of back and forth ventriloquism with a paper demon from hell killed.  Martin ended the night playing acoustic guitar while delivering a volley of quick, sharp jokes.

Local opener Erin Harkes easily warmed up the crowd with her sarcastic, self-deprecating takes on life. One of the Capital Region’s most popular stand-up comics, Harkes joked about life during the pandemic and about her ample bosom and issues with the containment thereof.  Also, a musician, be sure to catch Erin at NipperFest on July 23rd in Schenectady’s Central Park!

Photo Gallery by Leif Zurmuhlen