Many comedy album titles are fairly straightforward, designed for simplicity, designed to give you a glimpse into what you're about to hear. But how many album titles would cause you to blush when said aloud? Not too many I've come across, but the point was proven when I sat down with K Trevor Wilson during his visit to Austin for the 2019 Moontower Comedy Festival. While referencing SexCop FirePenis during my talk with Wilson, I blushed and excused myself each time I referenced the album. After a few times of saying it, I enjoyed the joke of the title and having listened to the album several times at that point, and several times since, I appreciated the self-referential nature and the word economy of the title. My hope is not only that you'll buy and enjoy the album SexCop FirePenis, but that you, too, will find yourself looking forward to mentioning the title to anyone who'll listen.
The album clocks in at just a c-hair over 45 minutes (an important reference that many Canadian comics like to use), and there are almost too many great elements about the album, but I'll try to give a flavor. Wilson is a man of few words, leaving long spaces between words, but resulting in no less power and ability to destroy a room with laughter. This is on display almost immediately in the album. Most opening tracks feature a host announcing the comic quickly followed by the comic's opening words. Wilson waits more than 11 seconds after his name is announced before saying a single word, long after the audience applause dies down. He waits it out, sensing that the longer he makes you wait, the more laughter he can generate. And he does. Like pulling on a slingshot, Wilson draws out his jokes, then launches his punchline with striking accuracy and to uproarious laughter.
WIlson's debut album was released September 2014, reached the top of the iTunes comedy charts and earned him a 2016 Canadian Comedy award for Best Taped Live Performance. It has the credentials, but does it have the firepenis, er, firepower? Of course it does. The album is a collection of stories, peppered with some very effective impressions (yes, you will hear a Bill Cosby impression - even after Cosby's precipitous fall from grace, Wilson isn't afraid to go there). If you listen to Wilson's album enough times, you realize that most of the album could be delivered as a dramatic reading, but there's something about hearing Wilson's delivery as he declares to the audience in Fire Story "animals don't know when you're trying to save them", only to then declare to the cat "it's not a game you asshole, it's a rescue!". And once you've heard the album you appreciate (appreciates if you're a proper Letterkenny Squirrely Dan aficionado) that the album title references the stories he tells.
Several of Wilson's tracks cross the 6 minute mark and the final track, Penis Game, crosses the 11 minute mark, a track length I rarely see in albums. But that final track is intricately orchestrated. Even listening again before writing this review, knowing exactly when and how the punchline would arrive, I still laughed out loud at the mastery of delivery and the visual imagery that Wilson presented. It is a wise and fruitful 11 minute investment of your time. As is every other minute of the album. This album has easily entered the multiple listens a month category for me. It makes me laugh, it surprises me, and makes me wish I could write fewer words to such great effect (as my word count exceeds 600).
Get this album. Say this album title to anyone who'll listen. And go ahead and get his follow up album Sorry! (A Canadian Album) and enjoy the deep mountain of a voice that delivers hysterical laughter.
