Sometimes, in the midst of all the gloomy news about the economy, global conflicts, and pandemic scares, you just need a laugh. Not a chuckle, or a wry smile---I'm talking big, hearty, fall-out-of-your-chair laughs.
A few days ago, I happened to catch a Comedy Channel special featuring a cherubic, sharp-voiced stand-up comic named Jim Pinette. Maybe you know him. Hell, maybe he's been around for years. All I know is, I'd never heard of him.
But that's changed now. Believe me, I haven't laughed so hard, and with such real joy, in a long time. Tremendously at ease on stage, Pinette uses his rapid-fire timing, vivid word pictures and hilarious sense of outrage to puncture myriad sacred cows. And yet, while a truly modern comic in the usual sense, his booming voice and clownish facial expressions bring to mind the classic comics of vaudeville, the Borscht Belt and the Catskills. He's part Bert Lahr, part Jackie Gleason, and part Buddy Hackett.
Plus, it doesn't hurt that he's a paisan. Though, trust me, you don't have to be Italian to enjoy his hilarious riff on getting over-fed at a small, family-owned cafe in Italy. It's not only fall-down funny, it makes you want to jump up afterwards and find the nearest Italian restaurant.
Like I said, up until a few days ago, I'd never heard of Jim Pinette. If he's new to you, too, I recommend you go check him out. In my clinical opinion, it might turn out to be the most therapeutic thing you've done for yourself in a long time.
