"Yesterday I was... Oh wait a minute. That wasn't me."
If that kind of minimalist, deadpan Zen-like joke is to your liking, the Steven Wright may be your favorite comedian. Or, how about, "If at first you don't succeed, then don't try skydiving"?
Wright is coming to the Taft Theatre on May 18, it was announced today. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 11 a.m. at tafttheatre.org.
Wright has been known for this kind of quizzical, offbeat humor — delivered with an air of ennui — since his 1982 breakthrough on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which was followed by a successful 1985 album, I Have a Pony and subsequent popularity on the stand-up circuit. In fact, Rolling Stone rated him 15th on its list of greatest stand-up comedians.
If he hasn't been touring that much in recent years — or, at least, not performing here — it may be because he's been busy as a television producer or being involved in movies. He notably was the voice of the DJ K-Billy in Quentin Tarrantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs. Wikipedia lists his first credit as a role of a security guard in a WKRP in Cincinnati episode.
