Live at Third Man Records, the first live album by comedy duo Scharpling & Wurster, opens with the titular performers’ disembodied voices nervously chatting behind a curtain. Stricken with stage fright, the two privately brainstorm ways to perform the show without having to actually step onto the stage. A supposed false start to the performance, it also serves as a subtle means of introducing a few of the pair’s favorite themes. Wurster—who also plays drums for Superchunk, Bob Mould, and the Mountain Goats—touches upon the pathetic banalities of rock stardom, admitting that most of the music at his concerts is prerecorded (“I’m back there reading a Kindle half the time”). Scharpling, meanwhile, lashes out with non-sequitur braggadocio to take down his fans (“You think I wanna go up there in front of these hay seeds?”). But it all culminates in both the set’s greatest in-joke and its largest understatement: “Let’s just do what we do normally,” suggests Scharpling, who has, since 2000, hosted the cultishly beloved “Best Show” (formerly on WFMU, and now hosted independently): “They’re used to hearing our voices—they don’t need to see us.”
For nearly two decades, free-form radio has served as the perfect format for Scharpling & Wurster’s wordy, outrageous world-building. Occurring unannounced in between fan callers and guest appearances, Wurster calls in, always in character, and carries out ludicrous, pre-scripted conversations with Scharpling, the disgruntled straight man. On the radio, Wurster can be anyone—say, a two-inch-tall white supremacist or Marky Ramone—and he uses that freedom to shapeshift almost every week, resulting in the rare show that seems to get more complex and untethered the longer it goes on. Wurster’s calls have been compiled on S&W’s numerous comedy albums and were collected in bulk on last year’s 16-CD Best of the Best Show* *box set: The Numero Group release that resulted in the duo’s first tour. The Nashville performance from that tour has now been issued as a vinyl-only release by Jack White’s Third Man Records.
Lasting only 40 minutes, *Live at Third Man *is neither the most definitive nor the most essential Scharpling & Wurster release, but it’s still a great one: a concise set that seems focused on celebrating their act, rather than expanding on it. But *Live at Third Man *is a strange kind of album. What you hear when you put the needle down is a recording of a live set written specifically to be seen, as opposed to heard (remember: “They’re used to hearing our voices, they don’t need to see us.”). Despite the potential awkwardness of the concept, Scharpling & Wurster are too well-versed in their art to avoid the pitfalls of many comedy albums (and live albums, for that matter). They keep things moving swiftly, switching between comedic monologues, mock interviews, and even a few musical numbers, thereby distilling the anything-goes nature of the “Best Show” into a digestible album-length event.
Like any good episode of the “Best Show,” the set includes plenty of obscure music references, insane song lyrics (“Mama, let me into those khakis/And I’ll take you down to orgasm street”), and even a guest appearances by guitarist William Tyler, who serves as the night’s musical accompanist and rips several scorching solos in the closing-and-opening renditions of the “Best Show”’s theme song. Wurster brings out two of his most beloved characters—the spiteful, hoagie-toting Philly Boy Roy and the perennially-congested, wannabe rocker Barry Dworkin—and plays them with the same hoarse-voiced theatrics that makes them come alive on the air. Scharpling, meanwhile, is deft as always at countering Wurster’s surrealism: his purposefully dead-end monologue about a hotel breakfast buffet will be the album’s highlight for fans of the show’s more understated moments.
Like most things Scharpling & Wurster do, it’s a lovable, infectious listen that warrants multiple plays. If you’re already initiated, you probably don’t need me to sell it to you: you’ve already attended (at least) one of these shows and know exactly what to expect. But if this is your first brush with Scharpling & Wurster, then it’s hard to imagine a better introduction to their strange, beautiful, and constantly expanding universe.
