Artist Steve Hofstetter

Steve Hofstetter could become a sort of everyman comic for clean-cut, smart-assed college grads under 35. While he doesn’t mind digging into the usual reasonable-liberal-dude talking points in his general fight against stupidity, he also muscled up to start a feud with Larry The Cable Guy—titling his second album Cure For The Cable Guy—and has worked the sports beat for National Lampoon. Even when he’s treading familiar territory, Hofstetter’s a smooth, conversational stand-up, and apparently has better-than-average luck at working a crowd: He spends nearly all of his 2009 album, Steve Hofstetter’s Day Off, bantering with audience members, including one who claims she once purchased a lobster from a door-to-door salesman.

Updated 10/20/2010