Through spurts of laughter, he went on to compare his enjoyment at the moment with a board sticking in his eye while assorted people held hands and jumped up and down on it. Right.
Gottfried's approach has not really changed since his early days at "Saturday Night Live." Originally from Brooklyn, Gottfried has appeared in a range of films, playing many variations of the same annoying guy.
His standup, however, was not annoying in the least. Quirky, of course, but that's the man's angle.
Unlike the pitiful opening act, Gottfried stayed away from standard setups ("What's the deal with those ...") but incorporated all his material into his running rant. He glazed over the Amish, shopping with Calista Flockhart -- "She kept asking, 'Does this make my spinal column look big?'" -- and the American fascination behind hoarding those little packets of Chinese mustard in the butter tray of the fridge.
With constant tangents and occasional impersonations that were quite good, Gottfried displayed unexpected intellect and talent. But the limited crowd often missed his references and concentrated on his use of props.
Though these instances were funny -- it is always fun to watch the elephant man trying to pick up girls or a napkin squid wearing a dracula cape -- it was apparent to Gottfried that his more cerebral jokes weren't going to fly.
Flipping the coin, some jokes and quirks just weren't funny -- there were definitely patches where he bombed.
Gilbert Gottfried gave the crowd what they were looking for and showed them some unexpected sides of himself. He tried hard -- and in some people's view succeeded -- to prove that he's more than a squeaky voice. But he already knows that it's tough to shoot above such a molded image.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
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