Reasons to laugh, period, let alone laugh out loud, are in high demand these days. My mental health is highly dependent on laughter, and Brad Williams can always be counted on to crack me up.
His recent show at the Granada, with a solid short opening set by JB Ball, brought the fun as promised. Williams is that rare comedian who can take on just about any topic and make it funny. While I’ve seen him enough times that not every story is a new one, I’m still giggling through them all. His last few recent shows were at the Lobero, and the Granada is a substantially bigger venue.
He talks about relatable things like parenting (he has a young daughter and says one of his many goals is to keep her off the pole), going to IKEA with your partner and trying to build a piece of furniture as a great test for relationship compatibility, or his take on a recent camping trip, which I am in full agreement with: “I hate f#$cking camping. I’ve worked too hard to pretend I’m poor for a weekend.”
(I hear you Brad. Honestly, the last B&B I stayed at was roughing it a bit too much for my taste.)
But he also talks about things equally funny but way beyond my experience. For example, Williams, who is a dwarf, talks about buying a king-sized bed at his wife’s request, and then hilariously tells the story of needing to build “doggie stairs” to get himself up on the bed.
“No one warns you that when you have a disability you’re going to be inspiring for no f#$cking reason,” says Williams, who minutes later launches into a whole thing about why he wishes he were a “foot fetish guy” because he has such an ideal vantage point. And then another story about having sex with a very large woman who was 6’2”.
Williams is definitely that guy who will always go for the laugh, no matter what boundaries he crosses. “It doesn’t matter what is happening, I will always be thinking of a joke. It doesn’t matter the circumstance. It could be in front of an audience, like 1000 like tonight, it could be an audience of one; if the joke is there, I need to say it,” he says.
And I, for one, really like to hear it. If there’s a Brad Williams show nearby, I’m in. It’s hard to explain exactly why I find him so funny, but I definitely do.
And as he says, “I wish I could be there when you guys describe this show to your friends.”
