Adam Quesnell – Can We Afford This Much Despair (CD) Discount

Adam Quesnell grew up in Northern Minnesota, where most of what he learned about the wider world came from TV. He learned about date rape and AIDS, that wildebeests get stomped on the yard, and that it’s utterly reasonable that no one goes to the most dangerous places in the universe. That’s not a failure of courage or daring, but a case of scientific knowledge beating out stick-a-fork-in-there curiosity. He also learned about superheroes from pop culture, and they all had badass origin stories. Superman, Spiderman, what was there for Adam Quesnell? As it turns out, his superpower might be the ability to leap topic to topic, gunning ever harder into his set, into comedy that causes discomfort and even fear. In just an hour, with “Can We Afford This Much Despair?” he bulldozes from calzones full of bees right up to why religious wars are essentially fights over who has the toughest ghosts and how diamonds show that your love is stronger than the pure bonds of humanity that generally steer history toward, if not kindness, at least not genocide. This may be Quesnell’s first full-length CD, but we’re certain it won’t be his last (so long as he cuts down on existential dread and McDoubles).

Track Listing

1. Xanax and Non-Sexual Circumstances
3. Gusto and Groupons
5. April Fool s
7. And the Band Played On
9. Sandwiches and Patriodiots
11. No Segue…Date Rape
13. Troll Bar
15. Chemical Burn
17. Dangerous Universe
19. Diamonds Are for Never
21. GPS
23. Visual Gag and Facebook Bits
25. No Gay Shit
27. KFC
29. Stop Abductions
31. Paranoid Anxiety Fantasy