Dave Attell, patron saint of after hours, has some thoughts on women who mix hard alcohol with diet sodas: “You’re drinking whiskey, the wildest drink known to man. Are you really counting calories when you’re drinking whiskey? . . . ‘I don’t want to look puffy as I’m screaming the N-word at an eclipse. ‘” It’s been more than a decade since Comedy Central’s cult hit Insomniac last aired, but based on his most recent special, Road Work, the New York-based stand-up veteran seems only to have sharpened in the interim. His stage act, a litany of observations that should get you in trouble nowadays on Twitter (jokes about special needs, “midgets,” pedophilia, anal beads, and whatever else makes you blush) is delivered with such blunt, off-the-cuff panache it’s hard not to do a spit take at the increasingly bizarre mental images he conjures. Don’t let all the filth—the glorious, unabashed, Wordsworthian filth—fool you: Attell is the consummate club act, one that’ll hopefully grace whichever 4 AM bar is closest for a postshow toast.
10/8-10/10: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 10:30 PM, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North, upcomedyclub.com, $35.