I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: January 18, 2025] Bruce McCullough

I went to City Winery last year to see Scott Thompson and said I’d never go back because it’s a pain in the ass to get to.  But then Bruce McCullough announced a show there and I relented.  It was also right around our anniversary so we made it a night of delicious food and dark comedy.

Now that I know about the Convention Center parking I’m less opposed to the area in general.  But we spent 30 minutes looking for a parking space as hundreds of people were walking around and driving around doing the same thing.  But we found the parking lot and managed to get to our seat about 30 minutes before the show.

We had duck tacos and rice balls and french fries and the food was really yummy.

Brucio came out just as we were finishing our food and he danced around while some music played and he started the show with a series of actual jokes.  They were dark and funny one-liners and then it settled into him telling some stories.  Never go up to a blind man with rippled chips and say “here, read this.”

There was a running joke that the last time he was in Pennsylvania, he was in Scranton (the meth and muffler capital of the state) and the reviewer panned the show and said it had a narrative that not even Frank Zappa could understand.  There’s no record of him having played Scranton, but the joke is great (and is exactly the kind of weird review someone in Scranton or the like would say).  The article also included a pie chart of The Kids in the Hall and Bruce was the dark purple one.

This comment about dark purple played throughout the night in a great way (whenever he mentioned a particularly dark and twisted observation).  And quite a lot of them were weird and twisted (a routine about masturbating in front of your dog ended with him saying he hoped no kids were in the audience and with him making an ad-lib “I don’t know why I said that.”)

Much like when I saw Scott Thompson, it’s hard to remember the jokes per se–they came fast and furiously.  Some hit and were hilarious.  Some were not so much.  But he was fine with that.  He told us that any jokes that went over our heads would sail out into outer space only to be reunited with him when he died.

About fifteen minutes into the show the guy at the table across from us (City Winery is tight quarters) said to the woman across from him “Will you stop it?  If you don’t like it please be quiet or leave.”  I don’t know what she was doing to cause that outburst, but I applaud the sentiment for sure.  And, amazingly, a minute later, she and her two companions left!

There was a great song/story about reading the Bible–whenever I walk into a church I think, wow what a great apartment this would make.  And a weird song/joke that he was Bob Seger.

I wondered if it was because the show was pretty dark and he wasn’t doing any Kids in the Hall material.  He did reference the other guys a couple of times, which was funny.  And he did throw out a “my pen!” but this was all about Bruce and his life.  How he mines disaster for comedy.

He had a lengthy story about a horrifying Air B&B in Pismo Beach (there was a wet tube sock on the table).  It was absurd and hilarious.  Especially when he went to confront the owner at his place of work.

The last story “collapsing orange” was about the time during COVID when a friend invited him to watch a theater show on Zoom–make sure you have an excuse ready.  He falls asleep during the show and wakes up and can’t move his arms or legs.  Did he have a stroke?  And the rest of the story is about his trip to the hospital.

There’s a lot of talk of him drinking a ton of gin, which is slightly worrying, but may have been a joke.  But despite all of the darkness, the ending of the show was surprisingly sweet and uplifting.

The show was 75 minutes, so we were done by 9 (amazing).  And on  the way back to the car, my wife got an amazing foot massage at a Tibetan Health Spa (Chinatown is awesome).

Here’s a video of him doing the show in Toronto. It was a lot of the same show as ours so don’t watch it if you plan to see him.  But if you saw him recently, there’s some other stuff–more songs for one thing.