This weekend I traveled back to where I grew up in Northern New Jersey to see TODD BARRY and Louis C.K. at the nearly sold out William McNeice Theatre. The theatre err…auditorium is located in Sussex County’s Vocational High School. Basically Sussex County is in the middle of nowhere with the only landmark of notoriety being the extremely dangerous water park, Action Park. Todd Barry came onto the stage simply stating “I don’t know where the fuck I am right now.” He then commented upon pulling up that he thought he was doing a show at a prison or perhaps an old steel mill. After pondering why he was there a few minutes longer, he remembered, “he was there to rip shit up.”

Barry’s set went through several bits from his latest release From Heaven including jokes about Chipotle and the plumbing in his apartment. He also told some new jokes including one about a hearing aid that looks like a bluetooth phone he saw in Sky Mall. (”I thought you were hard of hearing, not an asshole”) Later in the set, Barry asked the audience who else had actually performed here, claiming that he was probably the most exciting thing ever to come to Sparta, NJ. The audience yelled that George Carlin and Bill Cosby had been there before which Barry found hard to believe, but when someone yelled out Eddie Money, he was quick to accept it.

Louis C.K. headlined the night, with the bulk of his hour long set touching on him dealing with his 2 young daughters. Louis also took stabs at performing at a Vocational School, mentioning it’s where parents send their kids to crush their dreams. I am paraphrasing, but the joke was something along the lines of “You can’t be president son, but you can be really good at fixing air conditioners.”

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