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“The only exercise I’m getting is mood swings.”

I wasn’t familiar with the comedy of Drew Hastings when I asked to review this, but was rather curious how I would go about reviewing what is essentially a tight hour’s worth of stand-up comedy.

I have to say that after watching Irked & Miffed, I had to run to the interweb to see what else I could find by Drew Hastings, because this was a very enjoyable set of material that immediately made me want to see more.

Hastings dry and sarcastic tone deftly draws the listener from one subject to the next, briefly giving small glimpses of his upbringing by an English mother in Ohio, to his time spent in Los Angeles,  then his return to Ohio to escape the rat race and become a farmer.  An oddly metrosexual figure to be living the life of a farmer, Hastings draws a good deal of humor from this predicament, including losing money on his first purchase of a herd of Black Angus hogs.

Illustrating his further incompetence as a farmer, he goes on to describe how he has somehow managed to kill off 5 out of 6 barncats since he’s owned the farm, reportedly some of the most tenacious, most feral creatures known to man. “Do you have any idea how hard you have to work to kill a barncat?!?”

Another highlight is his account of visiting an animal park in Missouri, which he paints a less than glowing portrait of and describes having car trouble there that he assumes is a “goat or something else I ran over, wrapped around the transaxle.” when his car refuses to move forward.

His relationships aren’t painted with much brighter colors, past ones consisting of the usual crazies all comedians date, the current one being 20 years his junior at age 30.  He denounces the idea that it’s wonderful to date someone 20 years younger than himself, as it only means he must “...put up with the same s**t I had to 20 years ago.”

Drew Hastings: Irked & Miffed was recorded live at the Valentine Theater in Toledo Ohio and arrives on disc in a full frame presentation.  There are no extras to included on the disc, though it does sport a 5.1 surround mix.

I’d recommend this to most any comedy fans, though particularly to anyone who likes Ron White’s brand of sarcastic humor that pokes fun at the expectations of the more macho side of the world will definitely want to check this out.

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