Steven Wright

by Debra Auspitz

As a senior in high school, when most graduates were putting quotes from Robert Frost (“Two roads diverged … ”) or their own dictums (“Be True to Yourself”) beneath their geeky yearbook pics, I, a shade geekier than most, perhaps, put two quotes from Steven Wright (“If sometimes you can’t hear me, it’s because sometimes I’m in parentheses”; “I went to a restaurant and it said ‘breakfast any time’ so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance”). An ’80s and early ’90s staple, Wright appeared everywhere from Comic Relief specials to Desperately Seeking Susan. He’s best known for his deadpan delivery of one-liners on topics ranging from the peculiarities of the English language (“When the guy who made the first drawing board messed up, what did he go back to?”) to childbirth (“I was born by Caesarean section, but you can’t really tell … except that when I leave my house, I always go out the window”) to the simply bizarre (“When I was growing up we had a quicksand box in our backyard. I was an only child, eventually.”)

Wright’s live album, I Have a Pony, is like a greatest hits compilation of one-liners, many of which get repeated in his live act (there’s something simultaneously enjoyable and frustrating about being able to finish a comic’s sentences for him). Wright also gets into longer, more intricate stories in his live shows, and even though on some level it’s the shtickiest that comic shtick can be, it’s still hilarious.

Sun., June 16, 7:30 p.m., $27.50, Keswick Theatre, Easton Rd. and Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-572-7650.

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June 13, 2002
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