Show Me the Buffet

John Pinette leans into exactly what audiences expected of him with his debut album, building an entire hour around the trials of being a big guy who loves a large meal. Years before cable television made culinary obsession a national pastime, Pinette was on stage detailing the militant logistics of an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. The centerpiece is his story of getting kicked out of a restaurant for overstaying his welcome, but he brings the same weary exasperation to bits about Japanese tourists at a water park and surviving Disney World in August.

Recorded in April 1998 at Zanies in Vernon Hills, Illinois, Show Me the Buffet dropped right around the time Pinette appeared as the carjacking victim in the Seinfeld series finale. Some critics wondered if focusing entirely on food and weight would limit his appeal, but Pinette found plenty of mileage in the subject. He avoids cheap gags in favor of specific storytelling, whether he is explaining the physical reality of getting stuck in an inner tube or enforcing the unspoken rules of the buffet line.