Ring Toss for Aliens

By: Will Durst

Dangerous incompetents on the Right. Waffling wimps on the Left. And only one brave comedian stands between them: Will Durst. In Ring Toss for Aliens, Will valiantly leads his one-comic campaign to make the world safe for satire. And pity those who fall prey to his barbed wit.

Dubya, Rummy, the Governator, Bubba, Hillary, Barack, no one is spared. What do you do when you've got "a Wheel of Fortune president in a Jeopardy world"? You can only laugh... with Will Durst!

Ring Toss for Aliens was recorded live on March 2, 2007, at 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, Calif.

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©2007 Will Durst (P)2007 Will Durst

Critic reviews

"A modern day Will Rogers." (The Los Angeles Times)
"Heir apparent to Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory." (The San Francisco Chronicle)
"Hysterical hybrid of Hunter Thompson and Charles Osgood." (The Chicago Tribune)

Overdoing the Blue (State) Humor

Sorta funny, but a little heavy on the same old "Bush is stupid, Cheney is evil, Republicans are greedy racists" brand of humor. Political insult humor can be hilarious, if it's clever and not malicious for malice's sake. John Stewart consistently pulls it off, for instance. Durst occasionally does as well, and there are some truly clever jabs and amusing insights sprinkled throughout the program. But too often he slips back into the well-worn Janeane Garofalo/Huffington Post school of snarky liberal insults that even moderates or independants like myself are starting to find tiresome. And if you're a conservative, you're probably going to hate it. Which makes the description of the performance as a sort of middle-of-the-road, nobody-is-safe-on-either-side-of-the-aisle affair seem pretty ridiculous, even misleading. This show definitely lists to port.

Granted, the Bay Area crowd clearly reinforce his blue-state tendencies (almost every time he says anything slightly politically incorrect or anti-liberal he gets the dreaded Disapproving Groan). And he plays brilliantly to that room, ending his show with a list of the most heinous words he could find to describe the Bush administration -- literally going on for 2 or 3 uninterrupted, snarky minutes -- and there's no question they ate it up. But it loses appeal if you're NOT a Bay Area liberal watching another Bay Area liberal bash a Republican administration.

Will Durst is clearly a smart guy with an interesting perspective on a lot of things, and I'd really like to hear more of his commentary in different environment. But it seems that he's got to get past the blue state material if he wants to appeal to the majority of listeners from both parties who just don't find Bush-Cheney bashing all that funny any more.

So...the part of me that didn't like Bush's policies a whole lot gives this 5 stars. The part of me that doesn't like liberal policies any better gives it 2.

what did he say?

A very funny monologue. What can be heard , that is. Audio quality is terrible.