Meet Mark Gross

The first thing you might notice about Meet Mark Gross is Rodney Carrington's production credit. Besides being a writer for Carrington's television show, Rodney, Gross shares Carrington's love of the disgusting and — true to his name — gross, but he's not a "country comedian." If he were cocky like Andrew Dice Clay he'd draw the haters, but Gross' delivery of his often sexual, occasionally scatological material is downtrodden and just a shade above down and out. He lives in a world where playing strip poker with the waitresses from Denny's is a hot Saturday night, and watching the simplicity of Sesame Street is the only way to nurse your brutal Sunday morning hangover. Gross' writing for a major network television show isn't the only hint the comedian doesn't actually live this destructive life 24/7; his wit is too sharp. The horny drunks at the bowling alley are vivid characters that Gross uses to build his own three-minute sleazy version of Our Town, and his riffing on the family camping vacation is Cosby's reminiscing with a sailor's mouth. He's quick too, jumping from topic to topic and delivering stingers one after another that rile the enthusiastic audience into hysterics. Unfortunately, 90 percent of the album is unquotable because of naughty words, and the Wal-Mart greeter shaving her armpit above the water fountain is about the only imagery that can be paraphrased in mixed company, so you'll just have to check Gross out for yourself. His mix of disgust and fascination with obscene matters and society's underbelly is not for everyone but is just right for cynical connoisseurs of the tasteless.