Alive on State

Steve Gillespie’s second comedy album finds him leaning hard into a pushy stage persona that operates on a combination of panic and defiance. Recorded at Comedy on State in Madison, Wisconsin, the set captures a comedian a decade into his career, newly relocated to Los Angeles, and deeply suspicious of the mainstream paths people take to find security.

Much of the set’s charm comes from Gillespie’s vivid self-deprecation and his irritation with conventional milestones. He paints himself as entirely ill-equipped for survival, relying on a four-month-old pair of disposable contacts that leaves him a gust of wind away from total blindness, or passing out on the bathroom floor from blood loss after flossing for the first time in six years. He has little patience for wealthy customers demanding service workers smile more, pointing out that those with dental insurance should be the ones doing the smiling. He is equally suspicious of suburban fathers who ask how his comedy career is going just to feel better about their own dull routines.

Released by Stand Up! Records, the album reached number one on the iTunes comedy charts. Gillespie tracks his own trajectory with a blend of hopelessness and spite, refusing to buy into modern safety nets and concluding that he would simply rather die than build a survival bunker.