Review: Tom McGovern Debuts Some Of His “Dumb Little Songs”, Leaving Everyone in Stitches With His LIVE AT FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW

Tom Lehrer, Bo Burnham, Tim Minchin... None Of These Songwriters Come To Mind.

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

So what do you do, my dearlings, when you are as equally musical as you are funny? How do you reconcile the ability to compose songs with joke writing? It's easy - you write musical jokes, because the singing comedian, a solid subset in the world of stand-up, has been around since the year 1. Oh, and you also live with your parents and write jingles online for anyone with a Venmo account who will help you offset mom's Ramen Noodle budget... This is the life of super handsome, musical funnyman Tom McGovern who, playing LIVE AT FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW Sunday night, had the audience laughing AT him nearly as much as WITH him. At him, because of his temerity at kicking off the night with a song titled "I'M A PIECE OF $&!+" (for being 29 and moving back in with mom) or the affrontery of referring to his mother (present on the night) as a B!+C& in his, I MADE IT, a paean to New York artists scraping together just enough to pay the rent each month. No tune borrower, song parodist is Tom McG as all his music grows from his own fertile and funny fields. Like another great Tom (Lehrer), who composed clever songs in styles attuned to his 1950s & 60s intelligentsia audiences, McGovern's musical knowledge and composition talents allow him to create his own original tunes in many different genres of today, from RAP to Punk to Bluegrass and back again all while making fun of his topic, the times and those genres themselves. Clever does not seem to apply to his music as much as the word relevant. Clever can wear thin and get on one's nerves in a 65-minute show and McGovern does neither. To say he pokes fun at people who dress their dogs up for Halloween (SAD DOGS) or those who dodge others by pretending to take a phone call (FAKE PHONE CALL) is to sell him short; he pierces them.

And not to sell him short on his verbal funniness, as Tom's spoken comedy keeps everything moving at a hilarious clip throughout. The best parts coming from his electric chemistry with his stage husband, Music Director Nate Hopkins, a man who is equal to the task both comically and musically with the show's star. Moving effortlessly from piano to guitar to saxophone, Hopkins prodigious talents, fierce vocals, and almost manic while still being happy-go-lucky energy is the perfect chemical mix with McGovern's wry, dry "I'm working on my cool dude vibe" vibe. Individually both these men have musical talents that are off the charts. Together they have the makings of a comedy team that could go all the way. Little Bobby has to wonder what the star makers of the business are waiting for because these gentlemen are ready... and they're SUPER CUTE too. Leave us not, my lambs, forget the other members of this merry band of satirists:

Debbie Tjong - Bass/Vox

Josh Roberts - Drums

Nick Cabrera - Guitar/Vox

Marlene Ginader - Violin

And the fabulous road company Elphaba, Talia Suskauer, who subbed in VERY last minute, made comedy out of having to read lyrics off a tablet and was gone before we wanted her to be. The hilarity of spending an evening with Tom McGovern is worth any ticket price just to laugh and hear his songs and views on life as an artist who must make bank, even in a lockdown... And then he jumps down into the audience, asks some poor boob a few questions about their life, jumps back on stage, and composes a song, with Hopkins' amazing support, on the spot about the boob (who Bobby is sure was a very nice boob). This is the kind of improvisational moment that is the equivalent of working without a net and it is scary, brave, and brilliant. Once done, along with the laughs, one can't help but think, "Phew! He made it!" McGovern calls his work, "Dumb Little Songs" which completely sells them and their brilliance way short. Thinking of the titans of the realm; Garfunkel and Oates, Bo Burnham, Stephen Lynch, and even the legendary Steve Martin (in his stand-up days), this rainbow reviewer could easily see Tom (especially teamed with Hopkins) taking his/their place amongst these best of the best. One look at his youtube channel with its hundreds of thousands of views across his video landscape will show you that this writer of "dumb little songs," could be on his way to real viral popularity and that, as these kids today can tell you, is the road to stardom. So, for all the laughs on a Sunday (and because he was such eye candy too) Bobby must give Tom McGovern LIVE AT FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW the full...

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows.

YOU MUST Follow Tom on His socials immediately.

Look Right Up His YouTubes: HERE

Check Out His Webby: HERE

Tweet Him On His Twitters: HERE

Stalk His Insta-Pictograms: HERE

Ande Followe On Ye Olde FaceBooke: HERE

All Photos By The Ever Adorable, Stephen Mosher

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