Lewis Schaffer - Bigger and Blacker

Article by Rebecca Gordon | 11 Aug 2009

Perhaps opening by listing one’s shortfalls in comparison to more established comedians could have been drily amusing, but then I’m sure Lewis Schaffer doesn’t intend to provide justification with this painfully clumsy set, sorely deficient in any kind of structure or comic substance. We are treated to a disjointed string of feeble jokes, tossed out in an attempt to amuse the increasingly dissatisfied audience. Lacking anything of the ‘biting satire’ by which he is marketed, Schaffer spends the show hawking hackneyed (and at times mildly racist) observations on the likes of Jews and Nazis and by the time he dejectedly proclaims “I’m lost”, it’s pretty clear everyone’s wondering how he’s been at this for 9 years.