Recap Doug Benson at the Larimer Lounge

Comedian Doug Benson is a consummate weed-smoker, even managing to pull in the title of “Stoner Of The Year” from High Times in 2006. His current tour—dubbed The Medical Marijuana Tour, as all 13 dates are in cities that have legalized the green stuff for medicinal use—made a stop this past Tuesday at the Larimer Lounge, and was somewhat of a mixed bag.

Tourmate Graham Elwood opened, and oddly enough, he doesn’t smoke or drink. At all. Early in the evening, both comics joked that Elwood’s role was to drive Benson around and make sure the tour stayed on track, which actually didn’t seem too far from the truth. Elwood’s set was a series of forced memes, revolving around bad karate and snowboarding jokes, exaggerated mannerisms, and making fun of Nickelback—which at this point is just too easy to be funny. He did have some decent material, but it was never enough to really get the crowd going. The worst of it was probably the tacky merch he was peddling; all of which bore Elwood’s fairly unfunny and forced catchphrase, “Palm strike!”

Benson, on the other hand, was simply fantastic. His tone was conversational, and he had great rapport with the audience—of course, this was probably easy considering that the club was stacked with people that already adored him. His set was lively and varied. He shared hilarious slogans for corporations who would never want them; talked about having to shamelessly throw “I love McDonald’s” into his act so Comedy Central would let him do a bit about McGriddle farts; joked about hand-cunts and hecklers; and also managed to insult the city of Greeley. And, as expected, Benson also waxed comical about weed, stoners, and anti-drug ads.

It’s not hard to peg Benson as just another “pot comic.” The man himself even acknowledged that his career was “basically taking things that are popular and jamming weed into [them].” But while marijuana was definitely a big part of his act, he performed with such ease and accessibility that even those with little to no drug experience could have enjoyed it.