Hannibal Buress: "Animal Furnace" (2012) DVD Review

At some point while I was watching Animal Furnace, Hannibal Buress became one of my favorite comedians.  I think it might have been when he was reading an article that had been written about him, and tearing apart the poor writing.  Or it might have been later when he was talking about prayer.  But it doesn't really matter exactly when it happened.  After all, basically the entire sixty-five minute performance was hilarious.

He opens by talking about how security wouldn't let him into the building right away, asking him if he was working. His response: "Yeah, I'm doing a bit of work."  He then goes into a bit about his first professional gig, hosting an open mic in which his ex-girlfriend was performing.  So he introduced her by saying, "Coming to the stage is the cold-hearted bitch who broke my heart.  You may know her from not returning my phone calls and also giving out mediocre blow jobs."

And yes, he talks about writing for Saturday Night Live, and that stuff is funny.  But what I love most are his seemingly off-the wall observations, that actually aren't off-the-wall at all, but rather flow naturally in the course of his performance.  Like this: "When you put a garbage can on your head, it limits your peripheral vision about a hundred percent."  And I love him especially for tearing apart a journalist's poor grammar.  He actually reads an article that was written about him from a phone interview he gave.  Reading from the article, Buress says, "'His performances include comedic jokes' - wait, wait, wait. Comedic jokes?  As opposed to all the other types of jokes that are out there?"

I've always maintained that there is no subject that is devoid of humor.  And Buress' performance is definitely in support of that position. When a woman he was trying to pick up started rattling off rape statistics (and thus destroying his interest), he says, "Three out of ten women that get raped don't report it. Then how are you finding that out?" He goes into a hypothetical scenario of a rapist calling in, saying he's raped a woman, but doesn't think she'll report it, and he wants the statistics to be accurate.

About cancer walks, he has this to say: "I don't think cancer responds to how far people walk."  And one of my favorite bits is when he talks about people who say, "I'll pray for you."  His response: "Don't pray for me.  Make me a sandwich or something."  Praying is sitting at home and doing nothing.

He does tackle a couple of subjects that are common in stand-up, such as jaywalking and airport security.  But his approach is fresh, and delivery is spot-on.  And yes, the airport security folks do seem dedicated to keeping bottled water out of the sky ("It's probably easier to get cocaine on the plane than a bottle of water.  Probably the only way you couldn't get cocaine on the plane is if they looked at it and said, 'What is this, powdered water?'"). 

The DVD's special feature is a thirty-five minute day-by-day account of the week leading up to this show.  Titled A Week To Kill, this documentary by Ryan Ferguson includes early morning parking garage troubles, a radio show appearance (is it an "appearance" if it's on radio?) in Chicago, bits of him doing stand-up around town, and stuff with his parents (including his dad on naming him Hannibal).  And guess what?  It includes the footage of security at first not letting him into the building.

This performance was filmed at the Gramercy Theatre in New York.  Animal Furnace is scheduled to be released on May 22, 2012.  It will also air on Comedy Central on May 20th.  (The DVD features twenty minutes of material that won't be seen in the broadcast, and I'm curious to see if Hannibal's predictions as to what will be cut will prove accurate.)

In 2010 Hannibal Buress released his debut album, titled My Name Is Hannibal.