Kevin & Bean's April Foolishness at Gibson Amphitheatre, April 7, 2012

Kevin & Bean's April Foolishness
April 7, 2012
Gibson Amphitheatre

There is nothing like live comedy and when you get an exceptional lineup of great talent, you can't help but to be excited for the night ahead. Taking our seats in the Gibson was easy because the drink lines were long as hell and then with five minutes to spare, people filtered in like maniacs when the band to hit the stage to kick off this year's April Foolishness show. Looking around the crowd it was clear to see that all walks of life with beers in hand (yes, many people were double fisted) were ready to rock. KROQ that is.

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With Jimmy Kimmel's house band Cleto & The Cletones providing the beats, Kevin and Bean
hit the stage at 8:15 and the crowd of course went ape shit. They let
us know this 4th April Foolishness show would once again benefit the
Wounded Warrior Project and the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Children's
Center NICU charities. A special cause made even more special when they
mentioned that all of the comics would be performing for free. Sweet
indeed. Now bring on the laughs!

Larry King was first up, no doubt because it was
almost past his bedtime. Of course we all know he isn't a comic but who
doesn't want to see Larry King in person? He came out looking rather hip
in a leather jacket and while the crowd cheered he stated, “I'm 78
years old and I'm still a rock star!” Taking his jacket off to reveal
his signature suspenders, Larry brought his wife out for a quick hello
telling her, “John Stamos is looking for you. This could be the end of
our relationship.” He then warmed up the crowd with an old-timey tale of
his friends from school and while the stories he told weren't
particularly hysterical, it was still Larry King and his delivery made
it comical…of sorts.

Felipe Esparza (winner of Last Comic Standing) was
brought out by KROQ's Dave “The King of Mexico” and started his set off
covering pigeonholing saying, “I don't like the stereotypes about
Mexicans. We're not all workers!” The L.A. native's act was mostly in
Spanglish, but the laughter was universal. He talked of his need to lose
weight mentioning, “I have stretch marks on my stomach and I've never
been pregnant! When I take my clothes off it I tell women I was attacked
by a mountain lion!” The crowd loved Felipe and I noticed one of the
sax players in the band especially loved when he was talking about women
who wear clothes too small. Seriously. He was cracking up.

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing Bob Saget
do stand-up (and you like dirty comedy) I highly suggest it. Miss Double
D-ecember and Danielle (the phone gal from Kevin & Bean) brought
out Saget and the crowd went wild. Far from his Full House days, Bob's
A.D.D. style brought hilarious talks of telling people to shut the fuck
up, calling girls screaming in the audience ho's, ripping a photog, and
apologizing for offending anyone…because he plans to offend everyone.
Truth is, no was offended at all in this sauced up crowd. Not even when
he said, “I was circumcised nine times for Passover, enjoy the
calamari.” Please erase that visual. Please. Bringing out his guitar,
Saget ended with a song called, “Danny Tanner was not gay” and was
joined by still sexy John Stamos on stage for a semi-duet. I personally could have watched Bob all night. Fucking awesome.

KROQ's Lisa May brought up OC native Brad Williams
who was ready for his first run at April Foolishness claiming with
excitement, “Not bad for a guy from Fullerton!” Yes this midget (he said
it was OK to call him that, back off peeps) is small in stature but his
comedy brought the biggest laughs of the night. He did happen to say
that midgets make everyone happier (and that they should be given to
cancer patients) and by the way he owned the audience, maybe he's on to
something. The highlight of Brad's set was definitely when he brought
Lisa May back on stage and proceeded to give her an amazing lap dance to
Lady Gaga's song, “Poker Face.” For a tiny dude, he seriously had the
moves and even flipped upside down and rode Lisa shirtless complete with
a Brumski. He killed it and received a well-deserved standing ovation.

A piano was rolled out and Ralph Garman was on hand to bring out Aussie comic Tim Minchin.
If you aren't familiar with Tim (as I wasn't) trust me, get familiar.
He happens to sing quite well, has spot on delivery, and belted out
hilarity in the form of a great tunes with one called, “Fuck the
Mother-Fucking Pope,” which might have mentioned the words “mother
fucker” about 1,000 times. Rocking hair that looked like he might have
just been fucked himself, Tim received huge applause mixed with huge
laughs and his three-part “Confessions” song that kept ending with his
love of boobs had the whole venue singing along. Minchin surely earned a
ton of new fans after his performance (including me) and received a
semi-standing ovation of his own. He was in one word, brilliant.

KROQ's Beer Mug brought Eddie Ifft to the stage and
the rowdy crowd was clearly feeling the effects of the $10 beers. He
started off talking about his much younger girlfriend and how he had
quit smoking and drinking… while he was drinking a beer on stage. With
witty thoughts about when he's old and how he'll shoot heroin (because
he'll have veins everywhere), babies on planes (and aborting them), and
talking about how his sex drive is almost non-existent, the crowd ate up
Eddie's every word. He also gave plenty of ladies an idea of how to
keep their men awake on the drive home…you had to be there.

Lisa May hit the stage again to introduce crowd favorite Jay Mohr
and once again, the venue lost their shit with excitement. He started
in on how he was getting over the flu and has been “peeing out of his
butt” and “rooster tailing shit” for days now. TMI maybe? Not for this
cheeky crowd! Jay is known for his impressions and he didn't disappoint
with his spot-on Norm McDonald, Adam Sandler, and a “special appearance”
by Harvey Keitel while doing a scene from Goodfellas. I'm not sure if
Jay having the flu effected his performance but I will say that I didn't
think Jay on was on his “A-game.” I mean, everyone loved Jay's
storytelling but I did hear someone yell out, “Do Tracy Morgan!” I
couldn't have agreed more. But he didn't.

Kevin and Bean came back out to check on the crowd who were still
booze fueled and still loving every minute. No problems there! Jim Jefferies
is ummm, rather dirty, and that is just what the audience wanted and
expected from him. Might I add, he did a phenomenal job of bringing it!
From talks of how he used to fuck Michael Phelps girlfriend to airplane
etiquette, his set produced roaring laughter and remained peppered with
plenty of the “c” word. He even gave a shout out to Whitney Houston
saying, “I was really upset to hear she had died. Because I thought she
was dead already.” Love me some Jim!

FINALLY Eddie Izzard hit the stage. I only say finally because
at this time, the crowd seemed to be looking broken and burned out. The
popular English comic talked about difficulty with the Latin language,
hurt body parts, and looking for God while keeping the crowd as
entertained as humanly possible at almost midnight. While Izzard is
generally funny, I suspect the audience was thinking about the ride home
and was pretty much laughed out at this point. I think Izzard would
have done better with an earlier time but either way, he did a pretty
long set and still rules in my book!

Critic's Bias: Bob Saget! Bob Saget! (Tourette's guy's voice)

The Crowd: Dressed up and dressed down. This crowd
was ready to party and have a great time. The backstage crowd made for
the best people watching spotting John Stamos, Dr. Drew, comics John
Heffron and Matt Kirshen, and KROQ jocks Stryker and Mike Catherwood
mingling with us common folk.

Overheard in the Crowd:
“Big tits and bullshit make the world go around.”
“Brad was the best one. Oh my god he was funny!”
“My boyfriend left me but god willing, I'll get him back.”
“I think the women that Felipe Esparza was talking about who wear clothes too small is that woman right there!”
“I laughed so hard I think I hurt my spleen!”

Random notebook dump: Shout out to the overly
affectionate chick that had to pee three times. Twice she went out my
way. Twice she straddled her man to get over him giving him a porno kiss
each time. I'm no Martha Stewart but leave that shit at home.

Setlist:
Larry King
Felipe Esparza
Bob Saget
Brad Williams
Tim Minchin
Eddie Ifft
Jay Mohr
Jim Jefferies
Eddie Izzard