Ron White's blue humor charges Adler audience
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By David Burke | Sunday, November 12, 2006 |
Never has a bottle of Scotch received such a raucous response on a stage.
A stagehand delivered the bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label to a stool under a spotlight to the sound of timpani drums at center stage of the RiverCenter Adler Theatre in Davenport on Saturday night, essentially trumpeting the arrival of comedian Ron White.
White, whose fame has skyrocketed thanks to the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour,” nursed the Scotch as he played to a full house for the first of two shows Saturday at the Adler.
An apologetically near-laryngitic White said he defied doctor’s orders to go out and perform this weekend. But he also said the Johnnie Walker people gave him thousands of Scottish terriers in appreciation of his patronage (dogs he herds from Wymong to Texas yearly — which is tough with their short legs), so who knows what to believe?
Even with a raspy voice, White kept the crowd entertained.
In contrast to White’s September 2004 performance at the Adler, more than three-fourths of his 70-minute act this time was material that had not been released on video or CD. And even that had twists on the bits that were in his February album “You Can’t Fix Stupid” and the third Blue Collar movie, “One For the Road.” (Even “Stupid” had bits of his act that were more than a decade old.)
He poked fun at Homeland Security, and offered a way to pay for the war against terror — including selling Naval base land in Florida to Israel, taking the money to remodel and “flip” Mexico for a profit.
White talked about being married to his third wife, and offered this advice to husbands: “If you only (have sex with) your wife, you can’t get caught.”
He refuted claims about men made on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine, and offered an alternative to Viagra that can’t be shared in a family newspaper.
The danger of working with new material also came back to haunt him. He talked about being called a metrosexual, and getting his first pedicure. He imitated the Asian nail technician saying “Pedicure not only for you ...” — which fizzled and died quickly.
“I’ve whipped the crowd into a chuckle,” White said at one point.
Showing a resilience for fumbled punchlines that could have rivaled Johnny Carson, White repeated the line several times throughout the night.
Even with the strained vocal cords, White promised to come back to the Adler again, with another arsenal of new material. That’ll delight myself and thousands of people who still thought he put on a great show Saturday night.
Opening act Robert Hawkins also returned Saturday night, with 20 minutes on a variety of subjects, including the downside of growing older.
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.
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