Hard to Swallow

Jim David brings a dry, southern, gay perspective to the microphone, contrasting a slow North Carolina drawl with a theatrical cynicism that spares nobody. He is at his best when reading aloud from actual correspondence he has received, transforming unhinged hate mail and overly descriptive family Christmas letters into live dramatic readings.

Released in 2015 by Stand Up! Records, Hard to Swallow is David’s fourth comedy album. By this point in his career, he was a seasoned veteran of the New York club circuit and a frequent guest on SiriusXM, having previously built a reputation as one of the first openly gay stand-ups to get his own half-hour Comedy Central special.

The set features a mix of observational gripes and political venting. He targets national absurdities in “‘Murica the Beautiful,” complains about public screen addiction in “Get Off Your Phone,” and describes a harrowing encounter with the infamous Spanish cabaret performer Sticky Vicky. He closes the show with a retrospective of his own drinking, charting his history of alcoholism alongside successive presidential administrations.