"Most of my material is stolen directly from the works of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky and Hustler Magazine," comic musician Stephen Lynch recently told Time Out New York, his tongue no doubt well-ensconced in his cheek.
Thanks to his tuneful acoustic ballads about necrophilia and priests molesting altar boys, Lynch has accumulated a loyal college following over the last few years. In a free show for Dartmouth students, he is set to perform his one-man road show, "I'll See You In Hell: An Evening Of Love Songs" in Collis Commonground Saturday evening.
A musical comedian in the tradition of Adam Sandler and Jimmy Fallon with a touch of Tenacious D, Lynch's music often appeals to frat boys and theater majors alike.
That doesn't mean you'll necessarily want to go out and buy his debut album, "A Little Bit Special," which was released in 2000 on Ha Ha Records. Musicians like Lynch are the reason why God invented the MP3: novelty songs are best enjoyed one-by-one, laughed over with friends.
Listening to the album, it's obvious that Lynch knows what he's doing with a guitar, but he never moves beyond the basic acoustic style of 1960s folk songs.
Of course, a comedy album's main concern is not the music, but the lyrical subject matter. By that score, "A Little Bit Special" fares somewhat better.
Lynch usually starts out innocently enough, with lines that sound like something from an anguished teenager's poetry notebook: "I lie next to her in the bed./She's the kind of girl I'd like to wed," he croons on "A Month Dead" before proceeding directly into "Never mind the fact that she's dead/It turns me on."
Each track hits a different taboo subject: beside necrophilia and priest's desires for little boys, we get songs about strippers, a developmentally disabled kid, a homicidal stalker, homosexuality, androgyny, deadbeat dads and, most famously, "gerbiling" (if you don't know, it's probably better not to ask).
Perhaps the best track happens to be the least controversial. "Jim Henson's Dead" is a surreal homage to the late Muppeteer: "Now Miss Piggy's just another slab of pork to the Swedish chef who says, 'Mmm, bork, bork, bork.'"
Even though Lynch sometimes loses points for originality (he's obviously studied Sandler's schtick closely, and "Bitch" is a blatant rip-off of Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped"), his songs are genuinely funny -- for a little while.
After a full album's worth of this stuff, though, you'll be ready to move on to something a little more substantial. There's only so long most people can listen to lyrics like "If I were gay/we would swim in romanc/but I'm not gay/so get your hand out of my pants." After a few songs, you'll stop giggling or being shocked and just start rolling your eyes.
At the show Saturday night, you can expect much better. Anyone who has ever listened to CDs of comedy routines by their favorite comics can attest that the visual component is absolutely essential to humor.
Lynch's half-hour performance on "Comedy Central Presents" in 2000 was a big success, as was last year's 41-city college tour.
Lynch regularly leaves his live audiences in hysterics, interspersing his songs with banter and stories about his lyrical inspirations. Look for his on-stage energy to carry the Dartmouth crowd all evening long, leaving them with aching cheeks.
Stephen Lynch performs at 9 p.m. Saturday in Collis Commonground; doors open at 8.
