Saturday night, Leede Arena was rolling the Wright way. Comedian/actor/writer Steven Wright worked a filled-to-capacity crowd with his subtle-deliveries and surreal sense of humor. From his philosophical musings to picking up hitchhikers, Dartmouth cheered on his deadpan punchlines, revelling in their unescapable irony.
Unlike other comedians, what makes his humor so innovative and insightful are his keen observations that certainly no sane mortal could concoct.
He seems to view life through the lens of his own world, whether he recounts the days just after he was born, laying in the hospital crib, checking out the baby in the next crib: a female, imagining a future prostitute. Or when he keenly observes how his foot falls asleep during the day - that means it's going to be up all night.
Wright's flare lays in these uncanny twists on reality, but like he says, "that's the way I think, I can't help it if that's the way I think."
Wright began his career in 1979 in a Boston comedy club, and for the most part, his career has been a steady climb from lunchtime gigs in college cafeterias to "Tonight Show" appearances and, oh yeah, he won an Oscar, too. The Academy award came in 1989 for his short film, "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" depicting the ordeal of hellish therapy sessions, in which he co-starred with Rowan Atkinson.
One can only guess how having undergone therapy himself, as a child, may have helped to mold his current image. At first glance, Wright looks like the middle-aged band guitarist at your cousin's Bar Mitzvah, sans tux, sans full head of hair.
But to top that off, he considers himself to be a "nut" who will get into your head and make you think things, even if you don't want to.
Wright not only got to show off his dubious guitar talent, but he set a relaxing mood for the audience with his calm, monotone delivery. He spent much of the show sitting in a nondescript chair that might as well have been in someone's living room, telling jokes to the audience in the same way the typical American might mutter to the television set.
Though not everyone found acid jokes and the like as humorous as others, by the end of his performance, nobody could escape the relevance of his ironic humor because he holds up a bizarre mirror presenting reality. And a Wrighteous one at that.
