Jim Gaffigan: Food, family, and 'fatting out'

• Comedy Central
• DOUGHNUT SMUGGLER: Jim Gaffigan's routine centered around his book, Food: A Love Story.

You know you're in for a good evening when the usher who's checking your ticket says to you before you walk into the auditorium, "You're going to like him—he's very funny."

This was the case on Oct. 24, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center where comedian, actor, and author Jim Gaffigan performed back-to-back stand-up shows in promotion of his latest collection of essays entitled Food: A Love Story.

To those not familiar, Gaffigan's shtick is not limited to storytelling and observational humor. His forte is jokes dedicated to food. The title of his new book may be a surefire indicator of this as it serves as a follow-up to his 2013 New York Times Bestseller, Dad Is Fat.

After following his stand-up circuit for the past couple of years and watching a few of his specials, however, part of me was wondering if I had seen it all already—the cracks about eating too much McDonald's, the backhanded insults thrown at him by his wife and five kids, his extreme level of paleness that doesn't go unnoticed by strangers.

Not even 30 seconds after picking up the mic, Gaffigan dove right in to a bit about smuggling doughnuts into his roller suitcase in his hotel room and getting randomly chosen for bag search by airport security.

Without so much as a pause or stutter, Gaffigan paced the stage with the beam of white light from the catwalk following him, telling us all about his irrational hatred of stairs, his wish to be laid to rest in a steakhouse, and the phenomenon he refers to as "fatting out"—the process in which one becomes too portly for his or her clothes, but cannot come to terms with it.

Gaffigan even gave us a glimpse into life on the road, as he's performed shows domestically as well as internationally. His solution for his young children who just want to hear their daddy's voice when he's away? "Buy my albums, you know what I mean? Play those suckers on loop."

While Gaffigan's show seemed like it ended all too quickly with his likable Everyman persona making the time fly, what is unique about Gaffigan's brand of comedy is how it has introspective qualities that make his self-deprecating humor both relatable and endearing. It's these flaws that he shamelessly confesses to rooms full of strangers night after night that not only brings him closer to the audience, but the audience closer to him as they witness a well-to-do celebrity describe to no end the embarrassing side-effects of eating too many Hot Pockets.

Perhaps this is why the crowd filed out of the theater post-show and immediately made way for the lobby where they formed a mega-line to buy his book from the tables set up with copies stacked high on top. They wanted more Gaffigan, like a fat kid wants more cake.