Pablo Francisco has an unrivalled vocal talent when it comes to sound effects and impersonations. Put him alone in a room and he could be a one-man sound effects studio, a Foley artist of great skill. He can replicate the sounds of a techno club on a Saturday night just as easily as he can pretend to be Gary Busey ordering a sandwich in Subway. After spending the ‘90s on “MADtv” and touring as one of the “Three Amigos” with Carlos Mencia and Freddy Soto, he has become a very successful solo touring comedian, relying mostly on his ability to replicate nearly any sound or voice you can think of in order to poke fun at people and pop culture.
Unfortunately, those vocal acrobatics don’t always carry over into great comedy. They Put It Out There is his newest comedy concert DVD, and while it is not lacking in effort on Francisco’s part, it is lacking in fresh and exciting humor. Much of it revolves around dwarves, with Francisco even being introduced at the beginning by coming out accompanied by a little person who imitates his every move on a smaller scale. This was admittedly amusing at first, but after awhile the height jokes, and the race jokes, and even the porn jokes (who doesn’t like a good porn joke, key word being good?), wore thin,. However, it's worth pointing out that these jokes are indeed enhanced when accompanied by Francisco’s insane sound effects. His observations about pop culture are indeed apt, but they’re more worthy of a grin or a chuckle than a belly laugh. The most enjoyable bits were indeed the most vulgar ones, because it showed more risk-taking on Francisco‘s part than relying on the various celebrity imitations that have clearly won him laughs in the past. And isn’t some of the best comedy the kind that straddles the borderline between hilarious and inappropriate? Isn’t being inappropriate one of the goals of comedy in the first place? Francisco tries to do this but doesn’t quite succeed.
Francisco apparently has a rather huge cult following, as seen on the (admittedly biased) DVD extra titled “Fans,” in which various people waiting in line for the show’s taping profess their love for the comedian. One couple says they’ve seen him perform around half a dozen times, all over the country. Yet I don’t understand how his material could be that fresh and hilarious every time, considering that he wore out his welcome with me in approximately fifteen minutes, after he ended a great opener mocking club culture and proceeded into the bulk of the show. Francisco has an energetic and physical onstage persona besides a crazy vocal arsenal, and he’s not unlikable, but he does see to be a relic of a comedy era gone by. He cites his biggest influences as Steve Martin and Richard Pryor, and while both are comedy legends, one needs to move beyond the benchmarks set by their ilk to create comedy fit for the twenty-first century. I think that in today’s much-less-than-ideal world, with a failing global economy and political figures who can’t remember their own policies, that there are better and more exciting targets for jokes than black people ordering at Subway. Also, what is with his fixation on Subway, anyways? It’s almost as bad as his dwarf obsession, and both are too easy of targets.
Overall, Pablo Francisco is successful at a very specific type of humor, which might appeal to some audiences, but wasn’t quite to my personal taste. I would rather see him lend his vocal talents to animated films and voice-over than to stand-up.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
In addition to the previously mentioned “Fans,” there is also a skippable outtake called “Powder” and a random scene of Francisco trying on sunglasses while doing a Scandinavian accent. There are also an infomercial and a photo shoot for the DVD included.
"They Put It Out There" is on sale November 22, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy, Concert-Film. Directed by Manny Rodriguez. Written by Pablo Francisco. Starring Pablo Francisco.
