Hard ‘N Phirm @ The Hudson Theatre – 8.26.7
Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman played at the spacious and grand Hudson Theater to tape their first television special, Comedy Central Presents: Hard ‘N Phirm.
NOTES
–The taping was split into two sets: Lavell Crawford & Hard ‘N Phirm. Larger than life Lavell–who looked just like Spidey archvillain, The Kingpin, in his grey suit and salmon shirt–is on THE FAST TRACK TO SOMETHING with an appearance at Aspen, a finalist slot on Last Comic Standing, and his own half-hour special all within the same year.
–At the end of Lavell’s half, the stage manager shuffled around the audience members in the first couple of rows. The emcee said CCP doesn’t want the same folks on camera twice… which appeared to actually mean: Brown people OUT, White people IN.
–But did the nerdy tunes of Hard ‘N Phirm go over with this MALTSTREAM crowd? Yes! Melodicas + reciting the decimals of Pi + waving American flags to ditties about dinosaurs = UNIVERSAL APPEAL. Commitment goes a long way.
–Chris & Mike have a funny song called Love is Like a Simile in which they belt out obvious and redundant lyrics with all the passion and idiocy of rockers Savage Garden. “I wrap my arms around you… cuz that’s the only way I know how to have you in my arms.” You can hear it at the end of this AST Radio podcast featuring Hard ‘N Phirm..
–SPOTTED: Television star Scott Adsit was seen amongst the crowd, laughing and cooing at the things that were funny. Just like us!
–One last thing worth mentioning: we thought it was pretty cool that Hardwick was personally putting H’NP superfans on the VIP list for this show.