Daniel Tosh is the sarcastic kid at your high school who sits in the back and mocks the teacher’s clothes, and your accent, and anything else he finds amusing. Even the weather.
“You all made it here tonight!” he says to a packed MontBleu Theatre audience to open the second of his two shows in Tahoe on Friday night. “Thanks for coming out. I can’t believe so many people survived the big storm.”
Yes, if you were annoyed over forecasts calling for Snowmageddon in Tahoe last week, Tosh was your Sarcasm Jesus.
“I was prepared. I had an ax in my car, and I was prepared for the worst. Snow drifts 9 feet tall! And what did we get? Nothing! Can they just say anything and get away with it? ‘By tomorrow, 100 percent, aliens are coming! They’ll be here. Good luck!’ ”
A nice chuck of his show was Tahoe-centric, proving once again that this is a man who thinks on the fly. Tosh’s credo is to be outrageous; shock, offend and gross out — but most of all be funny. If you’re not funny, you’re wasting your time.
And when in Tahoe …
“Casinos. Is there any better way to spend my money? I won $20 here. When you do that, just leave. Go and buy some pancakes. Hey, I won these pancakes at the casino. That’s a victory parade.”
Tosh’s bio sounds totally fictional, and that’s appropriate, I suppose. He was born in West Germany, grew up in Titusville Fla., and graduated from Astronaut High School. His father was a preacher. His first, and last, real job was as a telemarketer.
Not buying any of that? We don’t blame you. But soon after high school he found comedy, and that makes sense.
Tosh knocked around the comedy clubs until his first big break, a 2001 appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman.”
Several TV gigs later, the Comedy Central show “Tosh.0” arrived — a sarcasm-laced, observationally brilliant Internet video clip show, in 2009. It set itself apart from all the other clip shows, and especially “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” because of Tosh’s personality. It’s outrageous and borderline offensive, just like its host (and producer), and is a huge hit in younger demographics.
“One time a Twitter follower said ‘I hope your show gets canceled,’ ” Tosh noted at the MontBleu. “Not likely. You know how much it costs to make that show? Nothing. We’re bulletproof.”
At just over an hour, Tosh was hitting on all cylinders on Friday. He had a solution for the civic unrest following a string of police-related shootings: “It’s simple. Only black people can be cops. Bam. Problem solved.
“Black people are cops and white people are firefighters. Get me tickets to that softball game.”
Politics: “Hillary Clinton has morphed physically into Winston Churchill. I’m dying to see where this ride ends up.”
More Tahoe: “People, stop putting stickers on your car. It screams ‘I’m poor.’ No one cares what you think about the shade of the lake, just drive faster, I have places to go.”
Texting while driving: “You know what the law says you can’t do? Text while driving. You know what you can do? Write a letter longhand while driving. (Mimes writing a letter) “Dear Grandma,” (Mimes dipping pen in inkwell on dashboard) “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you …”
More on “Tosh.0”: “The show is run by me and dumber versions of me.”
Final thought on Tahoe: “You all live in a little snow globe of happiness.”
The opening act was Mauranzio Vance, a little known comic who should definitely be better-known.
Vance’s opening line: “Am I the only fucking black guy in Tahoe?”
Possibly. And I hear the police department is hiring.
