The Charge

His pain is your pleasure.

The Case

In Captain Miserable, stand-up comedian Dave Attell (Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour Uncensored) of Insomniac fame performs at the Lincoln Theater in Washington D.C. to a packed house largely filled with college kids. Anyone familiar with Attell knows that his act is as un-PC as they come. Captain Miserable is no exception. Attell delivers a broad range of material centered mostly on alcohol and sex with some other scatological, disability, and race-based remarks thrown in for good measure.

In her review of Attell's The Best of Insomniac: Volume 2, retired Judge Elizabeth Skipper wrote that "The drunker you are, the more you will enjoy this series. Stone cold sober, it's amusing and passes the time. Trashed, it's a work of art." I watched this performance clear-headed and found it mildly amusing at times, but mostly crude and rude. For example, do jokes about pedophilia ever work? More importantly, however, is that when the show was over I couldn't recall one stand-out joke, although I could recall a number of gross and vulgar comments.

Thankfully, at only 52 minutes, I was able to endure the ride. I have no intention of putting the inebriation theory of Attell's humor to the test, but I believe that Judge Skipper's observation is true. Also, I believe that this is proof positive that there is something seriously lacking in Attell's work. Lots of things seem funny or good while inebriated; however, when you sober up, you wonder: What the heck was I thinking?

Both the video and audio of the performance are crystal clear.

The extras include a handful of deleted scenes and three short featurettes. The deleted scenes are, I can only assume, jokes that Attell or the editors of the DVD, didn't think quite worked, but they're in the same vein as the rest of the show. The three featurettes are short, insubstantial, and boring, consisting of Dave puttering around a music festival, clips of his Middle East tour performing for the troops, and snippets of him before, during, and after performing a set for a "Booze Cruise" in New York City.

Bottom line: This is premium material for frat boys, but is unlikely to connect with a broader audience.

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