Dan Schreiber: C*ckblocked from Outer Space

It was apparently only in the last two years that Dan Schreiber came to terms with how "fucking geeky" he is. Up until this point, we're told, he was in denial. Of course, it could be that the performer was never a geek, or that there's no such thing as geekiness. It's hard to tell. Despite having written an hour-long show almost entirely filled with references to geekdom, Dan shies away from explaining what the term actually means to him. He seems like a confident, handsome man with a privileged background and successful career in radio, but since he keeps identifying with an ultimately meaningless term, it's best that the audience surrender and accept him as an underdog.

Against all the odds, from beneath the crushing weight of his self-imposed otherness, Schreiber has produced a solid show targeted toward audiences in search of gentle late-afternoon laughs. He doesn't strike out at any point over its duration, but neither does he say or do anything particularly memorable. The entertainer has an obviously sincere interest in bizarre facts, many of which form the basis of more substantial routines, but his tendency to simply recite trivia betrays a lack of creativity on his part. His efforts to convey enthusiasm for these nuggets of information, meanwhile, result in a delivery style that can at best be described as cloying and one-note. It's only when Schreiber relinquishes some control of his show by engaging in unpredictable audience interaction that C*ckblocked from Outer Space shows any promise of taking off.