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Comedy Culture

Darren Frost: Emotional Terrorism

DARREN FROST: EMOTIONAL TERRORISM (self-produced, 2013) D: Frost, Michael Corbiere, w/ Frost. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNNN Rating: NNNN

There’s been lots of talk recently about who could play Rob Ford in the inevitable movie, and after watching comic Darren Frost’s fourth DVD, Emotional Terrorism, my vote goes to him. Sure, the mayor’s got more height and a lot more girth than Frost, who at one point in his show compares himself to Danny DeVito or a “fat, mentally challenged Phil Collins.” But the veteran comic matches RoFo in volatility and rage. Watching Frost, in person or on disc, your own blood pressure’s bound to go up a few notches. But at least the laughs he gets are intentional.

Recorded earlier this year in London, Ontario, this disc has all the hallmarks of Frost’s act: the aggressive, confrontational stance, the (playful) picking on someone in the front row by repeatedly calling him (it’s usually a him) “Fucky” and the savage tearing apart of news and pop culture items.

It’s a sign of how short the news cycle is these days that some specific references feel a tad dated, like bits about the drunk driver whose video singing Bohemian Rhapsody in a cop car became a YouTube sensation, and those punks from Jersey Shore.

Other jokes are classic, however, like his immigration test for new Canadians (“Have them watch a Rita MacNeil Christmas Special without vomiting on themselves”) or his bit about Justin Bieber’s favourite fans.

Approaching middle age, Frost’s not afraid to embrace his physical shortcomings and test the limits of acceptability. A joke about the TV reality show Hoarders goes to unexpected places. And he’s come up with brutally honest and funny material about raising three sons, one of whom might be gay.

His longest joke goes into vivid detail about birth control, beginning with a gag that’ll have you avoiding the egg section in Shoppers and ending with a vasectomy appointment that’ll make you wince in pain before keeling over with laughter.

One of the extras includes the infamous clip of a guy responding to one line from that bit. Introducing it, Frost (his pugnacious persona now gone) puts the episode in context, shedding light on his process and what he finds funny. There’s also a sequence from the Rivoli’s ALTdot of another heckler throwing a glass at him. And the best extra of all is his first comedy special, 2008’s Laughing Away The Tears.

Frost headlines at Yuk Yuk’s Downtown through Sunday (December 1). See Comedy Listings.

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