If you’re going to reference one of the jazz greats in your comedy album title, you’d better deliver the goods. Aaron Berg does. The words, images and free associations that spew from his mouth are like X-rated jazz with lots of blue notes. He’s an original, with the ‘tude of someone from Jersey Shore and the filthy, free-spirited wit of a Rabelais.
Berg spends much of his time riffing on the Yuk Yuk’s audience, sniffing out the crowd’s ethnic makeup, economic status, digging into people’s sex and drug habits and explaining the difference between racism and satire.
He gets away with all this – even the crudest stuff – because he’s just as honest (and offensive) with himself as he is with others. One incredible rant, delivered in his distinctive honking voice, has him imagining his ex with her new (Jamaican) boyfriend, and the two of them getting sexually excited over his own shortcomings and embarrassing hair choices.
Born in Toronto but based in New York City for the last few years, Berg handles the room like a pro, pitting one half of the crowd against the other, but all in good fun. The only subject that doesn’t work is Jian Ghomeshi. Too soon? Too close to home? Probably. Catch him in a year and maybe it’ll be funnier. Berg’s way ahead of the curve.
