I don't like to give away too much around here but one thing that I will hint at is that I think this might turn into Phil Mazo week at Tragic Laughter. Along with reviewing his debut album "Pervert" I believe at some point we'll have an interview with Phil. At this point it's just a tentative plan because Phil might become a giant star during the week and blow us off completely - something which is both unavoidable, and understandable.

Debut albums for stand up comedians can go a couple different ways. You very rarely find a comedian who peaks at the beginning of their career, and then steadily declines. I mean it happens -- I'm looking at you Dane Cook -- but for the most part the growth of an artist makes the material better. This isn't rap music where the entire package is tied into poverty, or childhood so that once it's down on a recording there is nowhere left to go. With that in mind I picked up Phil Mazo's "Pervert" expecting to hear an album all over the place, rough, but with promise.

What I got was an album with material that comes off much more polished then you would expect from a debut. That's not to say that the album is without flaws. The opening track is a strange audio clip from an interview about chess conducted with a very young Phil Mazo. I don't understand its purpose at all, but hopefully he can shed some light on it during our interview (TL note: which he did). The jokes that Phil opens his set with might lead you to believe that you've just purchased a standard debut album. There is a joke about tailgating an SUV that makes me shake my head in shame kicking things off.

However, once you push through the early minutes of his set Phil really starts to shine. You'll know the exact moment when things are about to be taken to another level when he starts to talk about his brother having a kid, proclaiming "whenever I hold a newborn baby, all I think about is how easily I can kill it." That line draws such a perfect mixture of laughter and horror from the crowd that you just know Phil is on the precipice of something fantastic - and he delivers.

I've heard this album called "cringe" and it's tough to argue with that, but that is not to say that Phil Mazo is a Jim Norton clone by any means. He's a little more subtle or at least as subtle as someone who calls himself a MySpace predator can be. The highlights of this album come when Phil pushes the envelope and leaves members of the audience in horror. There is one moment on the album when Phil is talking about his interaction with a Jewish woman on a certain dating service and he tries to out non religion her by saying "the Holocaust never happened, although I like to refer to my orgasm as the Final Solution."

Just making reference to jokes like that lead you to understand why Phil titled this album "Pervert." Most of the jokes that he sprinkles throughout the set aren't that perverse if you're used to hearing Norton talk about having a woman pee in his mouth, or Patrice O'Neal and his briefcase full of dildoes. But you can tell from the reaction of the crowd that Phil is stretching the boundaries of what normal (non Cringe Humor) fans are used to accepting. Personally, I think that his ability to mix in the filth element is done perfectly. I keep going back to the crowd but their reaction to this 5'5" comedian saying such awful things really is as important to the atmosphere created by the album as the actual material.

The final track is a bonus song called "How to Get to Heaven" where Phil picks up a guitar and does his best to get the crowd to sing along with some of the most horrible lyrics you can imagine. I've never been a huge fan of musical acts and I'm glad that Phil left the song until the very last track, but there is a moment where even this approach seems so perfect in its absurdity. I won't ruin it for you, but this particular song can be found on Phil's MySpace and I highly suggest watching it if you're interested in seeing a great example of what he is all about.

In the end what you get with "Pervert" is something that is solid as a first album. It's a good crowd, it's strong material, and you can sit down and listen to the entire set from start to finish without feeling as though you've hit a dry spot. It's obvious that this album has struck a chord with people as it is a debut album, released on April 1st and it's already reached the Top 40 Comedy Albums on iTunes (a fact which Phil is very proud of I might add). If you haven't already checked it out I'll be throwing up some links to download the album on Amazon, and you can sample every track there. I suggest that you check Phil Mazo out, I do not think you'll be disappointed.