Jim Gaffigan @ Berklee = Hilarious

We managed to get into one of comedian Jim Gaffigan's score of sold out performances this weekend at the Berklee Performance Center (pictured right, check out the "Sexy Tour" poster they had inside) and we were not disappointed. Perhaps you've seen Gaffigan's various Comedy Central Specials, his CD & DVD of "Beyond the Pale", his myriad late night TV appearances (particularly on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" where he's teamed up to form the animated superhero duo "Pale Force") or his performances on his regular TV gig (My Boys on TBS), but none of those media can equal seeing him perform in person. It's been amazing to watch Berklee add show after show this weekend and they've still completely sold out.

Hmmm, New York's not too far away and there's still tickets for his run of six shows there next week, so if you find yourself there you should go—or, if you have friends there, let them know about it. Between all of Gaffigan's acting gigs, it might not be so easy to see him onstage.

Gaffigan did visit some of his best known material—you know, the stuff about Hot Pockets, bacon, and laziness—but he added several new jokes to those bits and his timing on everything is impeccable - eliciting cascades of laughter from a simple pause or a glance around the theater. He also riffed on Dunkin' Donuts, "pharmacies in the Northeast," and experiences with fatherhood.

From an unadorned stage, Gaffigan fully engaged the audience in this theater, just a very pale man with a microphone, doing it all with his voice—make that 2 voices. For those totally unfamiliar with his act, Gaffigan tells his jokes with his deep Midwestern-tinged voice and will then periodically follow up those jokes with a kind of squeaky and breathy voice that has the perspective of the audience's "inner voice" but might also very well be the voice of Gaffigan's conscience, amazed that he can get away with a dozen Hot Pocket jokes in a row, and that the audience loves him for it.

Speaking of Hot Pockets, representatives from Nabisco crashed the crowd outside the Berklee Performance Center, handing out vouchers for free Hot Pockets and even a pen (pictured left) that plays the Hot Pockets jingle. If you have a 4 year old like us and you get this pen, you are set for Christmas, but you will probably want to commit yourself within 24 hours of giving it to a child.

We can't wait for Gaffigan to come back to Boston—but with TBS' "My Boys" getting renewed, three films in the can, and more projects on the horizon, it might be a while.