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Dave Attell, Captain Miserable
HBO Home Video; $19.98
Scintillating raunch is available in this HBO special, with standup comedian Dave Attell performing live at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C. Attell, a balding pudge with skeevy beard and friendly dark eyes, combines deeply pervy and palsy-walsy qualities in a way not seen since Telly Savalas went to that big casino in the sky. Topics: sexually assaulting Jack O'Lanterns after being inflamed by their come-hither grin; a trip to Florida to take Mom to the old folks home ("Half-business, half-pleasure"); the nice way to suggest a blow job ("Let's make throat babies!") and the bad way to conduct a hand job (addressing the ladies in the audience: "Aren't your stepfathers teaching you anything?"). Attell suggests that if abortion becomes illegal, the Leave Her to Heaven-style plunge down the staircase may make a comeback. They can arrest back-alley doctors, but "they can't arrest gravity!" The outtakes are slightly more poetic: Attell salutes the "lionlike Vegas hair" of Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife, and there's a W.H. Auden-worthy description of the sweetness of pineapple, which is totally unprintable. Added featurettes include Attell's jaunts to a NYC "booze cruise," an appearance at the Bonaroo Festival in Tennessee and a patriotic journey to Baghdad to entertain Our Boys. (Richard von Busack)
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