Myq Kaplan’s A.K.A. – available for pre-order
Stand-up comedian Myq Kaplan (it’s pronounced “Mike”) has a new album coming out May 8th, entitled A.K.A. The album is the same material that Myq performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018 under the title, All Killing Aside. As that title suggests, the A.K.A. album is focused on material about kindness, compassion, love… and bathrooms.
Myq is self-described as the “kombucha of comedy.” As he says, “I’m really good for you, but a lot of people go, ‘Is this what it’s supposed to be like?'”
Myq speaks quickly, but one senses that his mouth is keeping just ahead of his fast-moving brain. He teases out premises and twists concepts around until they come back bizarrely and beautifully mutated in totally unexpected punchlines.
Love Myq Kaplan, love his choices
Myq is vocal about his lifestyle choices. As indicated by the title of his first album, Vegan Mind Meld, he doesn’t eat animals or animal products. He has been quoted as saying he is “atheistic,” but seems to take a lot of guidance from Buddhism and Eastern philosophical texts. He’s polyamorous, and he doesn’t like kids. (His 2017 album on the subject is called No Kidding.)
But Myq Kaplan is not a ranter. He is not a scolder. If anything, he is a gentle cajoler. He seems like he would like to get everyone on the same page, but he understands that — like his comedy — it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Or bottle of kombucha.
The opening track of the new album, A.K.A., is called “Fight Club, Love Club, and Bathroom Humor.” It downloads as an instant-gratification track if you pre-order the album from iTunes.
In this opener, Myq talks about the bathroom as a joyful experience. In what is a divisive time, going to the bathroom is something that can unite us. Myq acknowledges the recent controversies that have flared up over who can use what public bathrooms, but he offers a simultaneously simple and gloriously convoluted solution to the problem.
For more from Myq Kaplan, check out his website and Twitter. A.K.A. is available now for pre-order and will be released on May 8th by Blonde Medicine.
More Pop Culture Beast – Comedy:
*Album Review: Josh Gondelman’s Dancing on a Weeknight
*Album Review: Maria Bamford’s 20%
*Album Mini-Review: Ryan Singer’s Free Love
Justin Remer makes movies, directs music videos, and plays in the bands Duck the Piano Wire and Elastic No-No Band when he is not writing movie reviews. His folk-rock documentary MAKING LOVERS & DOLLARS is currently streaming on Amazon.