A Boy Named Shannon

Dewayne White spent twenty-three years in the Army, was wounded in combat, and still treats having Shannon on his birth certificate as the tougher hand to be dealt. That grievance sets the tone for his debut hour, delivered with the rapid, irritated cadence of someone who cannot quite believe what civilian life requires.

Filmed at the Church of Satire Comedy Club in Hanover, Pennsylvania, the set catches the Washington, D.C.-based comic adjusting to peacetime domesticity. The material moves between the military and suburban middle age, contrasting mandatory gas chamber exercises with the quiet indignity of picking up old-man hobbies.

Rather than treating his Army service as solemn ground, he approaches basic training and overseas tours with the same practical disbelief he brings to marital disputes.