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Am I Yelling?

Bil Dwyer

Stand Up! Records · Album · 2020

A loud comedy album about surviving marriage and four children.

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Bil Dwyer has the face of a man who gets mistaken for an undercover cop at a retail store, a fact he is quick to acknowledge. What he lacks is an indoor voice, an occupational hazard that comes from raising four children and spending years hosting BattleBots. His 2020 stand-up album, Am I Yelling?, leans heavily into the domestic grind, treating a quarter-century of marriage not as a romantic triumph, but as a series of exhausting negotiations.\n\nReleased by Stand Up! Records, the album finds Dwyer joking about the slow decay of marital communication. He explains how he and his wife have managed to distill twenty-five years of cohabitation into exactly three daily questions: “What?”, “Is there coffee?”, and “The fuck you lookin’ at?” Dwyer’s self-deprecation keeps the domestic material from feeling tired, whether he is detailing how doing a little light housekeeping after sex can boost his performance ratings, or comparing his own intimate noises to a pug trying to lick a peanut butter jar clean.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Looking like an undercover cop

    Dwyer acknowledges he looks like an undercover cop, specifically the drug-taster who rarely gets to brutalize anyone, and examines scenes in cop shows where officers taste substances.

  2. Testing the cherish vow in marriage

    Explores how the vow to cherish gets tested after 25 years of marriage, reducing marital conversations down to three simple questions and contrasting it with Utah-style multiple wives.

  3. True sex noises and performance ratings

    Compares his uninhibited sex noises to a frustrated pug licking a peanut butter jar clean, and jokes that doing light housekeeping afterward helps boost spousal performance ratings.

  4. Night out check-in calls

    Details how calling home just to check in from an evening out signals the need to assemble bail money and baby-proof the hallway to the bed.

  5. Birth Time

    Dwyer points out how there is always one guy who ruins it for everyone else during childbirth.

  6. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Let's Play Pigeon closer

    Paints a vivid picture of children pretending to be pigeons in exchange for Doritos.

  7. The homeless and banana bread

    Connects homelessness with banana bread.

How it plays

Tone
Relatable, sardonic, unpretentious, and non-political.
On stage
Affable, open, somewhat sarcastic with an underlying Midwestern sweetness; described as not having an indoor voice, yet avoiding aggressive shouting.
Pace
Smooth, accessible, and measured rather than shouty or aggressive.
About
marriage and long-term relationships, aging and physical appearance, parenting and children, workplace rules and cubicles, sex

What the critics said

Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site praised it as an entertaining, solid album that makes familiar domestic and relational topics fresh, interesting, and far superior to standard fare, providing a smooth listening experience.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: standuprecords.com, nevernotnotes.com, en.wikipedia.org, theseriouscomedysite.com.

Backstory

Released in September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as a quarantine comedy release. Bil Dwyer had been married since the 1990s with four children, though he discussed life post-divorce around the release date.

Details

Released
Where
Stand Up! Records (album)
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2001)

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