Whatever the tricky balance is between rambling storytelling and hilarious alternative comedy, Janeane Garofalo mastered it decades ago, and I’m happy to report that she’s still got the knack. Characterizing her true calling as “the master of the filibuster,” Garafalo’s show at the Lobero last week covered a gamut of topics from modern medicine (such as why anytime a woman grows anything in her body, from a baby to a tumor, it’s always measured in terms of fruit sizes) to the beauty of Santa Barbara, of which she said, “It’s lovely here. Even your adult store is tasteful.”
With a laugh-out-loud riff on being mistaken for a homeless person in cities across the country, and detailed descriptions of her wardrobe, her tour packing routine, and domestic situation (“our apartment looks like two junkies in a Montessori School”), it’s clear that the same self-deprecating, semi-stream-of-consciousness kind of observations we saw her making in her 20s are just as effective now that she’s in her early 60s.
Plus, these middle-aged years are, if nothing else, a great source of material for humor.
I can remember seeing Janeane Garofalo onstage at the Uncabaret in L.A. in the 90s and marveling at what a funny, original voice she had way back when. Thankfully, she’s still got it.
