Laughing Skull gets Emo - Philips, that is

The falsetto-voiced man-child and veteran stand-up brings his non-sequitur-driven comedy to Atlanta.

True story: When I was a college undergraduate, I received a review copy of Emo Philips’ first comedy album, E=mo2, while working for the Vanderbilt Hustler. Given that the young Philips bore a faint resemblance to Paul Reubens, I wondered if Pee Wee Herman’s alter ego was trying out another boyish comedic persona with an affected voice. After the years went by, I decided to give Philips the benefit of the doubt that he’s a real person, and he can be seen in the flesh at the Laughing Skull Lounge from Feb. 9-12. I like the way his Wikipedia page says, “Much of his standup comedy stems from the use of paraprosdokians and garden path sentences,” as if we know what those mean.

I discovered a fun bit of trivia about Philips: In 2005, a British website voted one of his jokes from E=mo2 as the best God joke ever, which is animated here. Here’s another shorter bit about religion: