Drinking Made Easy Tour
With Zane Lamprey, Steve McKenna, and Marc Ryan
The Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale
May 19, 2010
Better Than: Drinking alone at your house while watching Three Sheets.
The Review:
Upon driving by the shopping center that houses the Culture Room, onlookers might've been wondering if they were actually in the parking lot of a football stadium. Car trunks were opened and coolers were pulled out as the crowd tailgated before seeing comedian Zane Lamprey on Tuesday. It's kind of a given that any fan of his knows how to drink.
Once we walked through the doors, we were greeted by kegs lining the outer rim of the stage and a bar area filled with bottles and a rhinestone encrusted backdrop. Bluesy country songs that apparently everyone knew the words to blasted through the speakers, and the audience sang along in unison as they awaited what many were hoping to be one of the best days of their lives. Comedy show goers acted like one big happy family as they jumped into random conversations about everything from Zanetoberfest to Zane Crawl -- oh yeah, they've all been to at least one of his drinking parties.
More pictures after the jump.
When 30 minutes were left 'til show time, the TV screens were turned on
and different clips of Zane on talk shows and Three Sheets were played.
Everyone laughed as if it were the first time they'd seen them, and when
music videos of Zane singing songs about alcohol appeared onscreen, the
crowd was both baffled and in a hysterical tizzy.
Once the countdown clock struck zero, Zane appeared and the crowd broke
out into an instant uproar. He said he'd bring out his stuffed
monkey/drinking buddy, the adorable Pleepleus, and he just had to take
him out of his suitcase. No one in the audience expected a six-foot-plus
person dressed in a monkey costume to come out and introduce the
opening acts. Steve McKenna and Marc Ryan warmed up the crowd with
tales of sexual conquests and drunken debauchery, then pulled Zane onto
the stage a few minutes in.
Zane began his act by informing the crowd of rules everyone must follow
in order to properly enjoy the show. Rule one: When you see the monkey,
drink. Rule two: When Zane burps, drink. Rule three: When you see Steve
McKenna, drink. Simple enough.
Part keg party, part variety show, He opened champagne bottles with
swords, with glasses, and with other bottles. He educated the audience
on how to make beer, what's contained in each variety of alcohol, and
the history of drinking throughout the world, but his words were less a
boring how-to guide and more an entertaining history lesson with added
comical relief.
Zane and co. took swigs from their respective bottles as he informed the
crowd that the average American lives 2,000 feet from a bar and 10
miles from the nearest brewery. He showed slides and videos of how he's
tortured drunken friends, but what was possibly most astounding was when
he pulled out a guitar and broke into song. His voice was surprisingly
melodic as he sung about house parties and boozing before slowing it
down with a "song for all the couples." With lyrics like "A couple shots
of whiskey and I'll get frisky; A couple shots of gin and you're
blurry, but you look thin; and baby, you're beautiful when I'm drunk,"
it's no wonder the audience didn't stop laughing.
Critic's Notebook:
Personal Bias: I'm a huge Three Sheets fan, so it's pretty
much a given that I'd be a Zane Lamprey fan.
Random Detail:The couple in front of me in line are such huge
fans that they traveled to five different countries Zane visited while
taping his show, just to go the bars he went to.
By the Way: His new TV series, Drinking Made Easy,
premieres on HDNet in September.
