There's very little of the standard set-up and punchline format that most comedians use in this 2007 concert filmed in Seattle, Cease's hometown (kind of--he's from Bothell). Performing in front of an adoring, mostly 20-something, crowd at Seattle's historic Moore Theater, Cease begins by launching into a memory (maybe, maybe not, as he soon reveals in a cascading series of tangents) of coming to the theater when he was a child to see Ellen DeGeneres. To try to single out where his bits go next is virtually impossible, as he veers wildly and widely, sometimes mid-sentence, between running, nonsensical statements like "These are my shoes" (and a holdover phrase from a previous routine concerning female genitalia which probably shouldn't be repeated on a family site) and bizarre takes on such things as playing Scrabble with his grandmother. The jokes, such as they are, come fast and furious and several seem to whiz by the audience with nary a response, though on repeated viewing, they are just as weirdly funny as the jokes that land.

The big question here is whether this act is, indeed, a put-on, or if it is Cease's actual persona. Throughout the performance, he pauses from time to time and laughs either to or at himself, taking a breath a resting for a moment, and seems almost normal for an instant or two. This, and the brief outtakes from the closing credits where he re-does several ostensibly off-the-cuff "wild and crazy" moments prove that Cease is really a very gifted performance artist who has honed this particular frenzied shtick to an art form, or something like it.

The DVD

Video:
The nice enhanced 1.78:1 image is excellent for this sort of thing. Multi-camera angles keep the standup from being visually boring.

Sound:
The standard stereo soundtrack is also perfectly acceptable--there's nothing other than Cease spewing forth on various subjects, so separation is not an issue.

Extras:
An enjoyable, if somewhat self-serving, documentary directed by Cease's brother gives some background on Kyle, as well as excerpts from various routines, again lending credence to the performance artist aspect of Cease's on-stage persona. When Cease's mother becomes overcome with laughter recounting how during her pregnancy she was told that Kyle was hydrocephalic and probably retarded, it's easy to see that there's a genetic element to his skewed sense of humor.

Final Thoughts:
Cease is a comic to watch. Some pharmacist fan might want to give him a little lithium to slow him down from 78 rpm and see if he can connect with a broader audience that way.

____________________________________________
"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet