Comedian Mitch Fatel admits that he sounds mentally handicapped—his voice is slow in meter and contains a slight lisp—but his speech impediment doesn’t detract from his humor. It actually helps it, hence the title of his best-selling 2005 comedy CD, Super Retardo. Fatel began capitalizing on his meek voice during his stint as an intern for The Howard Stern Show. Since then, he has propelled his star power forward as a regular performer at the Comedy Cellar in New York and guest commentator on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. While he maintains that his stage persona is different from how he acts in real life (read: he’s at full mental capacity), several of his fans still publicly question whether Fatel is truly disabled. Judge for yourself as he does standup at the Irvine Improv this weekend.
Thu., Jan. 8, 8 p.m., 2009
