Auggie Smith – Cult Following (download) For Cheap

Picture it: 2003. It’s Portland, when you could still smoke in bars. As if inspired by the city’s bounty of all-nude strip clubs, Auggie Smith, already a comedy veteran, has liquor laws and sin taxes on his mind. Somewhere between pasties and Mr. Pibb, we realize, it’s the “selective ethics,” it’s everything that smacks of hypocrisy, of the phallocracy, of our collective slide away from taking responsibility for our actions that really gets under his skin. And his voice is rising. From a practically conversational, Bil Dwyer level of frustration, Smith has begun talking faster and more precisely, peppering the case he’s building with winking one-liners. And then, finally, the staccato gives way to a full, blustering, incredulous-Lewis-Black-sputtering-at-the-lunacy shout, all fist-shaking and cathartic release. No, Auggie Smith is not for the faint of heart, the easily triggered, the ardently religious, liberal pedants, conservative prudes, neoliberal neocons, advertising executives, or Alex Trebek. But robbing yourself of the experience? Why, that’s just letting the terrorists win.

Auggie Smith has spent the better part of three decades collecting comedy accolades, livening up your TV, and testing the decibel range on your podcast apps. Stand Up! Records couldn’t be happier to to bring you “Cult Following,” the first in our pair of Auggie Smith re-releases.

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