Brooks Wheelan
Middle East – Cambridge, Massachusetts – May 7, 2016
Frequent readers of Ground Control (as you should be) know my love for Brooks Wheelan’s stand-up debut “This is Cool, Right?†We listen to a lot of records here on Ground Control and they just keep coming, but as of late, it’s becoming that stand-up albums are coming out faster than ever. On last year’s Best-of lists, I carved out a space for best Stand-Up album, and you can guess who that honor went to. So if my man Brooks Wheelan is doing a show in town, you bet I’m going to be there.
This is Cool, Right set a pretty high standard for my expectations of Wheelan but, sure enough, all my expectations were shattered because his set was composed of the strongest material I’ve heard from him to date. For starters, I love that he chose to play the Middle East instead of a comedy club; no one likes getting ripped off with a 2-drink minimum. Also, a seemingly-drunk Wheelan (his delivery much slower than what I was accustomed to on his album) delivered a pretty elegant set, full of interesting stories and funny takes on politics, living in NYC (the source that keeps on giving), family dynamics, drugs, relationships, writing, and even found ways to throw in some Boston-centric material. And it’s even more impressive that fresh off of releasing an album, Wheelan had sixty minutes of fresh stellar material.
It’s hard to say whether the comedy boom is bursting or not, because it inflated to an inconceivable size in the first place. So with all these new acts, it’s hard pick out the up-and-comers, or the comedians even worth your time.  I’m pretty sure Wheelan has yet to reach his peak, but at his current state, he’s still a cut above the rest. [OLLIE OTTOMAN]
Artist:
http://brookswheelan.tumblr.com/
![Brooks Wheelan – [LIVE]](https://groundcontrolmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IMG_0325-720x430.jpg)