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Adam Sandler still makes jokes. You may be Gen X or a Boomer and think of him as the doofus next to Chris Farley on “Saturday Night Live,” but aside from being an extremely well-paid Hollywood movie star, writer, and media producer, he’s also a musician who plays for laughs.
It may surprise you to learn that, dating back to 1993, Sandler has released nine albums, four of which are soundtracks from his films and specials—the latest being last year’s Adam Sandler: Love You. It seems that the overarching chunk of his output is of the musical variety rather than the stand-up comedian spooning out witty observations.
So is it good? Is it funny? Well, let’s put it this way: He’s not a parody addict like Weird Al Yankovic, nor is he an original visionary, a comedic Brian Eno. No, Sandler sounds like a drunk Billy Joel. He also comes across like that guy who lived down the hall in your dorm and always brought his acoustic guitar to the TV lounge to play his latest composition.
Much as that guy would often break up at his own punchlines before he delivered them, so does Sandler. I mean, you’ve probably heard “The Chanukah Song” around the holidays by now, because that mid-’90s strummer racked up 17 million plays on Spotify, and that can’t all be Jewish bots amusing themselves.
Generally, his song constructions don’t stray too far from his sparse Chanukah blueprint of an instrument or two, plus vocal arrangements. Bringing his You’re My Best Friend Tour to the area, he’ll likely chuckle his way through foul-word peppered ditties (and trust me they are ditties—little ones even) on subjects ranging from the wholesomely domestic to the inane.
To my taste, he’s not as witty as “serious” musical artists Sparks or Jonathan Richman when they’re being intentionally funny, and he’s certainly not as dry or off-the-wall as vintage Steve Martin or Cheech and Chong. That’s not to say it doesn’t land—he’s got his moments, even if for me those tend to be found in the crime drama Uncut Gems and not whatever he’s put together for Happy Gilmore 2.
He’ll sing some humorous songs, and you will probably laugh a few times—which is more than I can say about a lot of other famous people with microphones you could pay to see at JPJ.
