The Best Lookin' Man in Comedy

Fancy Ray McCloney spends forty-three minutes proving that he is exactly who he claims to be. Blending the preening physical confidence of Little Richard with the bombastic self-aggrandizement of Muhammad Ali, the Minneapolis local celebrity and commercial pitchman treats his debut stand-up album as a high-camp coronation. He drops rhythmic, self-penned poetry, mocks his own androgyny, and leads the crowd through a series of energetic chants. It is a performance built less on traditional setups and punchlines and more on the sheer, overwhelming spectacle of his personality.

While the album was released by Stand Up! Records in March 2020, the tracks were originally captured during a pair of intimate 2014 sets inside the subterranean Minneapolis offices of Secret Stash Records. McCloney was already a beloved Twin Cities fixture, famous for his low-budget local TV commercials, a brief cameo in a Super Bowl ad, and a 1998 gubernatorial run where he pulled more than nine hundred votes on the “People’s Champion” ticket. The album captures this local lore, featuring bits on his campaign, his childhood, and a story about a rented Penske truck.

The release of the album was met with local celebration, with the mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul officially declaring March 27, 2020, “Fancy Ray McCloney Day”. The record features liner notes by screenwriter Diablo Cody, who described his public persona as a spell cast over the region. It also features a brief, commendatory quote contributed by McCloney’s lifelong idol, Little Richard.