bill bodkin reviews the stand-up comic’s debut album …
Ryan Maher isn’t a household name … yet.
However, after listening to his debut stand-up album, Off The Rails, it seems like only a matter of time before the NJ Transit train conductor turned stand-up comic becomes one of the premier acts in the stand-up comedy business.
Maher has an insanely natural style of stand-up comedy, delivering every joke with swagger, confidence, passion and sincerity — something pretty amazing for a performer in the business under five years. He’s brutally honest, self-deprecating in a weirdly charming way and has a knack to make the audience cringe without ever losing them. He tells fantastical tales of the everyday life, kinda like Dane Cook, without all the yelling, flailing … and money.
Off The Rails, recorded in January 2011, at Maher’s home-base of Uncle Vinnie’s Comedy Club in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., is kind of a full-circle story. Maher began his professional career at the club winning an open mic contest, which ultimately led him to become a comic full-time. The hometown-boy-done-good feel is definitely prevalent on the album.
What makes Maher stand out, in terms of his performance, is his ability to weave those fantastical early Dane Cook-esque life story pieces in with a healthy dose of pop-culture criticism. One minute he can cracking about his sex life or life as a train conductor, the next he can be skewering the President or The Situation. Many comics have that pause, that implied signal of “OK, I’m switching to the next joke.” Maher, however, keeps it conversational. He keeps the energy going and he knows how to play a room, cracking on audiences members with no mercy.
It’s this honest and hilarious style and subject matter of comedy that makes Ryan Maher so good. His album has been in constant play in this writer’s jeep for the last two weeks. It’s so rich with hilarity that multiple listens are required. And with these multiple plays, you realize just how good this comedian is and that it’s only a matter of time before he becomes one of the major players in the comedy world. So hop on the band wagon/train now and be one of those people who can say “I remember buying his first album” when Maher becomes a star.
