Greg Morton
Crackers Broad Ripple
Feb. 28-March 4

Despite making his third appearance at the Broad Ripple Crackers since October, Greg Morton isn’t overstaying his welcome. Last Thursday, playing to a college-night room that was half empty but fully charged, Morton alternately charmed and challenged the crowd with an act whose dark edginess is masked by a goofy, cartoonish delivery that was nearly age-appropriate.

Morton, a former animator and cartoon voice actor, packs his act with the rubber-boned, insta-recovery violence that is the staple of Saturday morning cartoons. When Morton is on the mic, children usually take it on the chin. They’re beaten, scolded and humiliated for laughs. Repeatedly. Morton lives in a world where having white carpet is effective contraception.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he comforted the crowd. “I like children. I’m just saying if you want to have them … don’t.”

Opener Claude Stewart was an ideal pairing: a loose-limbed, spiky-haired, high-kicking ham who kept the audience on edge with a sex-heavy, ambiguous act that answered the question, what would Andy Dick be like if he had hair gel and a home gym. As Carrot Top is to Gallagher, Claude Stewart is to Andy Dick. Horny midgets, industrial sex toys, Mariah Carey and Drew Carey all made cameos.

“You’re all staring at me like I’m an Amish person at Radio Shack,” he admonished a crowd that was befuddled, but not so befuddled they couldn’t laugh.

Morton closed the night with his two signature bits, lightning fast recaps of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings followed by a montage of musical impersonations that included full costumes and eventually revealed that he took the stage in three pairs of pants and a double-dose of underwear. That alone was worth the price of admission.