Video of a 2011 set shows a fresh-faced, distinctly unarmed Cantwell performing the hits from a man who its (definitely self-submitted) Funny Or Die page describes as a “libertarian comedian” with some “thoughts and punchlines on the current state of American Politics [sic].”
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It’s unsurprisingly terrible, running the gamut of amateur comedy tropes from a barely recognizable impression of a president to a set that gets rolling with the thought-provoking question, “Is it just me or is the world going to hell?”
Throughout all of this, Cantwell paces the stage like a caged baboon, working through a tepid series of jokes condemning “race-baiting in politics” and “the Nazis on Wall Street.” Watching now, knowing Cantwell from his more recent history as a proud racist and fascist, lends the video a surreal quality. Entirely unfunny and filled with a self-righteous, barely contained anger at everything around him, it also looks like logical first step toward his current career as complete, rather than just comedic, pariah.
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