Friedlander Displays Absurd Humor

Judah Friedlander’s “World Champion Tour” made a stop at Middlebury’s own Wilson Hall on Friday, Oct. 16 to a packed crowd eager for laughs. Friedlander, known principally for a supporting role on the Tina Fey-produced and Emmy-winning 30 Rock, has been performing stand-up since the age of 19, and he displayed his characteristic wit and slacker style in an assured and raucous performance.

Promoting his new book, If The Raindrops United, a collection of witty doodles and visual puns, Friedlander made the case for his singular brand of weirdo in his Friday night performance. Clad in his distinctive trucker hat, “World Champion” T-shirt and outlandish frames, he was unmistakable and idiosyncratic. The “enlightened slacker” type that has characterized his persona over the past two decades was in exceptional form, and undoubtedly resonated with Middlebury’s college-aged audience.

Friedlander’s set contained a few running themes: An endearing yet ironic brand of fervent American patriotism was on full display, as was mock-egotism and distinctive absurdist humor. However, the defining character of Friday’s show was freewheeling improvisation guided by audience participation.

Understandably, many unaccustomed to the world of stand-up comedy – this writer included – may approach a show heavily featuring audience interaction with some trepidation. Yet Friedlander built a playful and inclusive rapport with his audience. A welcoming and relaxed energy ensured that any joke made at the expense of an audience member was all in good fun. Glimpses of self-deprecation on the part of Friedlander helped maintain balance between performer and audience as the set progressed.

Friedlander played nicely off of Middlebury’s noted (and often exaggerated) cosmopolitanism in a bit that involved surveying the home countries of audience members and offering potentially misleading, often pointed and always humorous comparisons to the United States. In doing so, he brought to light our peculiar interactions with foreign countries as well as the absurdities of national attitudes at home.

One particularly fruitful improvisatory aside sprung from Friedlander’s declaration of his presidential candidacy for 2016. Opening to audience questions concerning his platform, Friedlander found himself facing the politically-minded and left-leaning college population, always armed with a keen awareness of hot-button issues and ready to pose difficult questions. Much in the vein of Stephen Colbert’s satirical The Colbert Report, Friedlander often diffused such questions in presenting a caricature of the gung-ho all-American, yielding responses that were absurd, quick-witted and utterly matter-of-fact.

As the evening unfolded, audience members found themselves led by little more than Friedlander’s quick-wit and imagination. Thankfully, the journey was colorful, appropriately weird and always hysterical.​