I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: December 4, 2019] Pete Lee

Exactly one year ago S. and I attended the Brian Wilson Christmas Special.  This year we were in Philly for the She and Him Christmas Party.  Clearly December 4 is the day for Christmas specials!

A few days before the show (we were the first stop on the tour) it was announced that comedian Pete Lee would be opening the East Coast dates while Patton Oswalt would be opening the West Coast dates.  (It’s not often that I wish I was on the West Coast, but this is one of those times).

I had never heard of Pete Lee. When I looked him up I saw this on his bio:

Pete Lee was the first stand-up comedian to get a standing ovation on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and it resulted in him appearing on the show three times in the last year.

Interesting.

That’s all I read before the show.  But looking at the bio after the show I see that it really does sum him up pretty well:

Pete’s joyful humor comes from his Midwestern roots. Raised in Janesville, WI by divorced parents and a 19-inch television, he was destined to pursue a career in entertainment.

He’s been on TV a bunch of times then got his own “web show on MSN.com” (was that really a thing in 2010?)  He’s done a lot more writing and appearances since then.

So I guess he’s pretty well known.  But this opening slot had to be kind of awkward since it was a comedian opening for a musical Christmas show that was very family friendly.  There’s not too many comedians who can navigate that spot.

Fortunately for Pete Lee, the line above about his joyful humor is really key.  His comedy is very gentle.  A lot of self-mockery at how gentle his is and how the big city is tough for a happy Midwesterner.

He did an admirable job.  Most of his jokes were pretty funny.  A few were laugh out loud funny.  I am very glad that I didn’t watch any of his material ahead of time because I see that he did some old jokes–it’s probably a pretty safe bet to assume that most of us hadn’t heard him before.  In fact a lot of the jokes he did come right from the Tonight Show monologue (see below).

Some of my favorite jokes

My name has four es in it — it sounds like  a moped horn “peetlee”

He talked about his girlfriend (yes he has one) and that it’s confusing because her name is Jamie.  Why do people keep giving their cute little girls boys names?  They decided to have cute nicknames for each other.  She nicknamed him pumpkin butt.  He nicknamed her Sarah.

He knows he;s not the kind of guy that women look at and say–“he’s going to ravage me all night.”  They look at me and say “I’ll bet he has good penmanship.”  pause.  And I do.

He always looked up to his dad.  His dad is an interior designer: “My dad gave me my y chromosome but the y was in cursive”

His redneck friends would say, “My dad’s taking me hunting this weekend.”  He’d say, “Mine too–for bargains!”

He did an entire bathroom routine which was original and not at all vulgar.  It even had sound effects!  Of the automatic dispensing machines.

He said that he was so pale that motion sensor sinks don’t even see him–nope that’s just more sink.  It ended with a very good joke about the motion sensor toilet.

Pete Lee was a delightful comic.  It’s tough to be nice and funny.  But he pulled it off very well.  And although nothing he said was at all Christmas related, it did put us in a holiday mood.