Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese

Chris Gethard

Album · 2019

An audio comedy set designed solely for New Jersey residents.

Chris Gethard builds an entire set out of hyper-regional gatekeeping, trading broad appeal for jokes specifically engineered to make outsiders feel left out. The performance is a loud, unapologetic tribute to the trivialities of the Garden State, treating matters like highway directions, the local Medieval Times, and the naming convention of a pork breakfast sandwich as high-stakes local lore.

Recorded in August 2019 at the Asbury Park Brewery in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the performance was surprise-released as a comedy album by Don Giovanni Records later that year. The project came in the wake of the cancellation of his public-access-turned-cable TV program, giving the West Orange native an outlet to perform highly specific regional material he could never workshop at mainstream comedy clubs. Many of the bits, such as a segment on the Evil Clown of Middletown, were completely unpolished, with Gethard trying them on stage for the first time. During the set, Gethard even prompts immediate pushback from the audience when he wades into the geographical dispute over pork roll. Because the material was recorded at a brewery in Asbury Park, the Central Jersey crowd was more than happy to argue back.

The set list

6 bits

  1. The Taylor Ham vs. Pork Roll naming debate

    Gethard defends the North Jersey term 'Taylor Ham', earning vocal pushback from Central and South Jersey crowds, and jokes that Taylor Ham would make a great name for an exotic dancer.

  2. New Jersey human anatomy analogy

    He maps Jersey cities to body parts, designating Trenton as the brain, Newark as the heart, Paterson as the gut, Camden as the bowels, and Bayonne as the appendix.

  3. The mystery of Bayonne

    Explores how you know you are in Bayonne because you feel weird in your stomach, highlighting the conspiracy of silence surrounding the town and legends of a monkey man living by the tracks.

  4. New Jersey Discrimination

    Addresses how New Jerseyans are looked down upon as uncouth morons despite growing up adjacent to major cultural centers like New York City and Philadelphia.

  5. Medieval Times

    One of only three routines practiced prior to recording, poking fun at the Lyndhurst jousting dinner theater attraction.

  6. Great Adventure

    One of the few practiced tracks on the album, dissecting urban legends surrounding the New Jersey amusement park.

How it plays

Tone
Sweet, heartfelt, affectionate, confrontational, and hyper-local.
On stage
Described as a 'punk rock sweetheart comedian' who wears his heart on his sleeve, balancing deep affection for his home state with confrontational Jersey grit.
Pace
Unrehearsed and spontaneous momentum; mostly delivered as un-workshopped 'hail mary passes' spoken into a microphone for the first time.
About
New Jersey identity and pride, Regional debates and food terminology, State geography and city stereotypes, Theme parks and roadside attractions, Diner culture and giving directions

What the critics said

Praised by critics as an insightful, affectionate, and sweet love letter to New Jersey that remains relatable and funny even for listeners unacquainted with the state's eccentricities.

In the room: Energetic and vocal crowd participation at Asbury Park Brewery, characterized by hollers, applause, and immediate, contentious heckling over the pork roll debate.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: pitchfork.com, chrisgethard.bandcamp.com, dongiovannirecords.limitedrun.com, dnj.com, thecomedybureau.com, en.wikipedia.org, nj.com.

Backstory

Created in the aftermath of a stressful three-year battle with television network executives urging him to conform to mainstream late-night talk show formats; Gethard decided to bypass broader commercial appeal to reconnect with his roots by creating an hour composed entirely of hyper-specific New Jersey material.

Details

Released
Taped
Asbury Park Brewery
Topics
Before
Career Suicide (2017)
After
A Father and The Sun (2025)

More from Chris Gethard

If you liked this