Review of Earl Okin's CD "Musical Genius and Sex Symbol"

Earl Okin: Musical Genius and Sex Symbol

Yeh OK. The best joke on this live recording is the first one. "Teenage Dirtbag" done in bossa nova style. A bit like Jose Feliciano's version of "Light My Fire" without such good guitar and with a much worse song. I did laugh.

But it carries on with his ponderous and slightly muso jokes interspersed with other such (but not quite so crazy) bossa nova versions of unlikely material.

The "intimate" audience annoys with individually audible claps and at one point they even clap along with the song. Does anyone else hate that, or is it just me? Given the distances involved, even an audience with a sense of rhythm (ha!) is going to start getting out of phase more than a few yards from the stage. Before you know where you are you've got the aural equivalent of a Mexican wave sweeping round the place as everyone hits the beat a microsecond after the person in front of them. Sonic cruelty.

I digress. Earl Okin also does mouth trumpet and a semi-serious version of Coldplay's "Yellow". There's an audience participation number "The Safe Group Sex Song" which is tedious.

But if you were there, you might have giggled. Or not. He's doing a show at the Leeds David Lloyd Club on the 7th May. I expect they'll enjoy it in Cookridge. The song about the big mango should make them titter.

But if you could buy the Teenage Dirtbag on its own, you might titter too. I would hate anyone who hadn't got pissed at his live show to spend eleven ninety nine in the hope of getting something side-splittingly wonderful. It has charm, but not that much.

• www.sonyjazz.co.uk/earlokin/

Find related articles: david lloyd club, earl okin, teenage dirtbag, intimate audience, jose feliciano.