I’ve long been a fan of Alton Brown. I binge-watch Good Eats and Iron Chef America reruns much to the annoyance of my wife. I’m still subscribed to his long-dormant podcast, “The Alton Browncast.” I regularly whip up his recipes when in need of an easy and foolproof meal (I actually made his meatloaf last week and I strongly recommend his chocolate tofu pie).
So, even as familiar as I am with his body of work, I really had no idea what to expect from his live stage show. Would it be a two-hour cooking demonstration? A lecture series? A musical revue? Some sort of demented circus sideshow with farting puppets and comedic skits?
In the end, it was all of those things.
As Brown paced casually around the stage, regaling the audience with hilarious morality tales from his long cooking career, I kept trying to put my finger on what this show and his performance reminded me of. He had the sort of off-the-cuff, narrative comic routine of Eddie Izzard, and the absurd, larger-than-life spectacle of Gallagher. But there was more to it than that.
About halfway through, it hit me – he’s Garrison Keillor with a chef ‘s knife. A singer/songwriter. A comedian. An actor. A storyteller. A performer. A showman. And just like A Prairie Home Companion, “Alton Brown LIVE” is a modern-day culinary vaudeville show.
Of course, above all else, Alton Brown is a cook. And, oh, there was cooking.
With the help of two too-good-to-be-true audience volunteers (a Baptist pastor with a quick wit and an intoxicated retirement home cook who masterfully walked the tightrope between obnoxious and amusing), Brown went Tim Taylor on some culinary classics. He made chocolate ice cream in only 10 seconds with the help of a CO2 fire extinguisher, and then made pizza (and a calzone) with 54 high-powered theater lights – a “MegaBake Oven” that Alton actually conceived in grade school.
You may have noticed above where I said “singer/songwriter” – yes, there were songs. In fact, the show kicked off with a rap that had me question what I had gotten myself into. Throughout the two-and-a-half hours, there would be four musical numbers in all. Despite my natural inclination to cringe at pretty much all forms of musical comedy (Mr. Yankovic being the obvious exception), Brown’s songs were amusing, in a nerdy, theater-kid sort of way.
In addition to the opening rap, there was a country song about the time he got food poisoning on a transcontinental flight after eating a shrimp cocktail at LAX, and a rock song about wanting, but never getting, an Easy-Bake Oven as a child. While personally, I would have preferred a longer Q&A session in place of the songs, they were harmless and entertaining enough.
Aside from some less-than-courteous audience members (seriously, Milwaukee, what’s with the yelling out at shows?) and a woman who I’m pretty sure vomited on the floor in the row in front of me, “Alton Brown LIVE” was peak Alton Brown. Humorous but educational, over-the-top but accessible – it’s the same flavor profile he brings to everything he creates.
