Comedy Death Ray This Week: Pure Gould

After a show with one of the longest sets we've seen, this week's installment of Comedy Death Ray at LA's UCB Theatre was a great time with lots of acts. What did you miss?

• Hosts B.J. Porter and Scott Aukerman, the co-founders of the show, mastered the ceremonies with all sorts of bits from going on about how they're going to tweet all their jokes to a delightful bit involving Aukerman as "Jerry Magazine," a waiter from P.F. Chang's who decided to do comedy. Well done.
  
• Rory Scovel came back with all sorts of meta fun, opening the show nicely. (He was here a little while ago.) A good set.
  
• The new Comedy World Champion Matt Besser kicked all sorts of butt with the best introduction we've ever seen at the show, involving stealing booze from the audience and making out with some chick on the stage, followed by several attempts to come up with world comedy records to break. These included tons of jokes in a minute, quickest joke, and apparently he's accepting more records to break via Twitter. Matt Besser should be one of your comedy idols if he isn't already from his Comedy Central series Upright Citizens Brigade... which is where the theater comes from.
  
• Matt Dwyer's set was quite delightful, as this podcast host and comic seems to know his audience. Truly, the finest in rape jokes. See him if you can.
  
• Next up was Matt McCarthy, who looks sort of like an alternate-universe Louis C.K. and like Mr. C.K., he's really freaking funny. We shan't spoil it. Seek him out, true believers.
  
• The increasingly omnipresent Charlene Yi performed a brief set with a number of jokes, a radio show bit she did on CDR Radio last week, and a quick song. Good times.
  
• Finally, one of the greatest voices in comedy has returned to bless us all! Yes that's right, Dana Gould. Babies! Dogs! Other stuffs! He released a new CD and DVD earlier this year, and tonight's set is mostly brand new material. As we seem increasingly fond of saying about people that didn't have a CD release party during CDR last week, you must absolutely make it a point to see Dana Gould if he comes to your town, and if not, check out his albums.

So, the show was in tip-top form with a whole heck of a lot of comedy in under two hours. If it's near your area, or you're in town on a trip, do consider checking it out, like apparently the mainstream press seems to want you to.