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Invite Them Up is the insane brain child of standup kings Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale, who in a small Lower East Side, New York club, invite the best emerging comedic talent to try out their new stuff. This triple CD combo, with a DVD thrown in for good measure, contains close to five hours of the best new material from the likes of David Cross, the guys from Stella, Todd Barry, Demetri Martin, Mike Birbiglia, Slovin & Allen, and twenty more.
The brainchild of comedians Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale, Invite Them Up is a loosely structured comedy show that takes place in New York's East Village weekly, offering edgy and fresh comedians an informal setting to try new material, perfect their act, or just blab on and on about whatever. This great three-CD/one-DVD set from Comedy Central gives non-New Yorkers a chance to experience these brainy and funny evenings with a warts-and-all attitude. Plenty of time is wasted with acts coming on-stage only to spend a minute or so adjusting the mic or mumbling in-jokes to whomever, but it's part of the set's unambitious charm and gives the impression of "being there." At worst -- co-host Bobby Tisdale's numerous go-nowhere ramblings -- the set is indulgent and only mildly amusing, but at best -- other co-host Eugene Mirman's wry material, the beatnik-meets-Napoleon Dynamite set from Demetri Martin, and the team-up between Jon Benjamin and the spiritual godfather of everyone on the disc, David Cross -- the listener gets the feeling he is listening to the next big thing in a tiny club. The audio portion of the set sprawls and takes patience to pay off, but the DVD is tighter and offers instant gratification. Slovin & Allen present a Bob & Ray-meet-Samuel Beckett performance that's stunning, while Mirman steals the show with three short films, one confronting a cyber-heckler who sent him a nasty email. Todd Barry -- who's battling Benjamin and Cross for the best track on disc three -- covered this same kind of ground in his off-Broadway show Icky, based on a negative posting he found in the Conan O'Brien forums. That should tell you how indulgent and personal things can get with this set of "indie" comics, but the numerous ex-girlfriend and "I went shopping this week and saw...." stories come off better than expected in this loose atmosphere. Everyone will find the one or two comedians he or she just doesn't get and the set is probably too big for anyone who can't name all the members of The State, Stella, and Kids in the Hall, but fans of unpolished comedy rarely have it this good. Comedy Central has released some fantastic combo packages in the past, but Invite Them Up deserves special kudos for splendidly capturing a small scene long before its full impact is felt. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
