The crowd amassed outside the Orpheum Theater Saturday in anticipation of “Parks and Recreation” favorite Nick Offerman was nearly homogenous. It was T-minus 10 minutes to showtime, and the line snaking out from the mouth of the Orpheum was saturated with flannel shirts, cuffed denim, leather boots and trimmed beards. It was exactly the aesthetic Offerman attracts: a largely male demographic, enticed by his rugged woodsman persona. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the audience was largely middle-aged. Honestly, I was surprised by the lack of younger attendees, considering the continued popularity of “Parks and Recreation,” as well as the Internet’s idolization of Offerman’s character Ron Swanson. Perhaps the considerable ticket price of $45 scared away the college-aged fanbase.
There was a guitar and a microphone occupying an otherwise empty stage. About 20 minutes after the stated start time, Offerman strolled onstage half-naked, his shirt tucked under his arm. Within five minutes, it was clear that Offerman is a considerable departure from Ron Swanson, who so many know him as. In those five minutes, Offerman mentioned giving blowjobs in abandoned buildings, encouraged the audience to masturbate during other shows and used the brilliant phrase “coitus hurricane.” Hailing from neighboring Illinois, he played the Madison audience well, pandering to the crowd by praising local theater, eateries and atmosphere.
Q&A: Nick Offerman praises Wisconsin food before Madison show
Offerman’s subject matter began as we’d expect from this neo-woodsman. Criticizing the softening and apathy of Americans as well as our modern reliance on technology, he praised the balls and can-do attitude of our founding fathers, encouraging the audience to live more simply and happily. He came across tremendously down-to-earth, appearing less like a celebrity and more like a good-natured small-towner who happens to do well onscreen.
Dick jokes, vivid descriptions of anal sex with his wife and drug usage were a surprising part of his comedic arsenal, to a nearly overwhelming extent; after a while, Offerman’s reliance on the word “motherfucker” where it isn’t expected began to have the same effect as being locked in a room with a seventh grader who has just discovered Urban Dictionary. I’m by no means opposed to foul language, but on too many occasions it felt like Offerman treated foul words not as an embellishment or enhancement of a joke, but as the sole element of his humor.
After about 30 minutes of various material including a song about nailing his wife, Offerman shifted gears from his signature subject matter to a generic, liberally-minded routine. In a city known nationwide for being liberal, making (admittedly well-done) jokes about gun control nuts and the idiocy of bottled water seemed almost too easy to me. For about a half hour, Offerman ridiculed religious fanatics, modern politics, the absurdity of advertising, McDonald’s, how shitty white American settlers were and various other subjects that nearly every liberal can agree on.
I’m not saying Offerman wasn’t funny with this bit, but the subject matter was hardly original, and it almost seemed too easy to spoon-feed politically liberal jokes to a politically liberal audience. Offerman didn’t put a new angle on any of the subject matter, simply repeating the same brand of humor that’s been done for years by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I’d compare this choice to playing dodgeball with a group of kindergarteners. Sure, it’s an easy win, but it’s less impressive. For a man who has demonstrated comedic mastery onscreen, it was sort of a letdown to see Offerman opt for such easy humor.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the show. With his musical numbers, swift and brutal put-downs of moronic hecklers and a handful of clever stand-up bits, Offerman proved himself a talented comedian offscreen. Still, his best bits came at the start of the show, before he switched to generic subject material and before the novelty of “Wow, look at this adult saying “motherfucker” in front of a big audience” wore off. In short, a lot of his humor seemed too easy. Yeah, he got laughs, but that’s no challenge in a room where the audience is nodding before you even open your mouth. Offerman came off as a genuine, down-to-earth guy with a lot of great musings on the changing nature of our society, but his heavy reliance on overused topics and standalone swear words suggest that perhaps his best work as a comedian is with the assistance of “Parks and Recreation” writers.
