Drag City
Under the guise of his notorious standup comedian character Neil Hamburger musician Gregg Turkington has been baiting audience members with offensive jokes about celebrities and making barf sounds into microphones since the early 1990s. Hot February Night documents a 2007 set opening for Tenacious D at the peak of the band’s fame on the Pick of Destiny tour. Predictably the crowd hates Hamburger but like Andy Kaufman’s lounge singer Tony Clifton the idea is to bomb.
On this particular evening tirade topics include James Brown’s constipation Ringo’s All-Starr Band and Courtney Love’s plans for Thanksgiving dinner often punctuated with the catch phrase “But that’s my life.” As he begins to receive a chorus of boos Hamburger fires back calling out insults along the lines of “fecal breath” and “cocksucker” while claiming a triple-digit pay for the performance. If this all sounds unpleasant it’s because it is but also gut-bustingly hilarious if you’re in on the joke.
