Eddie Gossling’s ‘Fresh Brewed’

Eddie Gossling’s Fresh Brewed could be a 1940′s production of Warner Bros. Studios. I suspect that if Eddie nicked himself shaving, “Red Ink No. 5″ would spill out onto the sink.

What I’m saying is that Gossling is a cartoon, and in the best of ways. Eddie has a manic energy, across which he stretches his high thin voice. And when he’s keyed into a particular point, that voice gets higher and more shrill with the bizarre vitality that comes with riding an insane tangent to greater and greater silliness.

Which is not to say he shouldn’t be taken seriously. Gossling is reliably hilarious without ever being predictable. Manic and mercurial, Eddie is a moving target, rarely taking a moment to slow down. One bit that does slow down examines how his inadequacy for mathematics prevented him from being an otherwise ideal candidate for a job at NASA. Grounded in the necessity for scientific exactitude, Gossling runs at lower RPMs to imagine himself “ballparkin’ it” in the aeronautics industry, to excellent comedic effect.

His style mixes well with his material. At some level, his intensity pushes his material over the top, and sells it. For example, when he imagines himself in conventional situations like nine-to-five jobs, it’s easy to imagine him straining against the bonds of professionalism. When he describes getting fired at his job and using a surprise glitter attack on his boss, (“What’d you do at lunch, blow a clown?”), the imagery flows naturally and believably.

But Gossling is at his best when he fuses his madcap delivery with material based in awkwardness, with just a sliver of creepy. This he does for his wife’s “benefit,” leaning into her ear at bedtime and whispering something disturbing in a voice reminiscent of Gollum in Lord of the Rings. It’s as troublingly hilarious as one could hope for, and it’s pure Gossling. And his rendition of a man-boy in a onesie, singing: “Baby likes to jig-gle it for mo-therrrr…” is as discomforting and wicked as it gets, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get it out of my head.

Eddie has a light touch that makes his silliness go down easy. His performance is fast-paced and has a way of following illogical logic, corkscrewing from a bizarre premise off to an unlikely side street, without losing the audience. Improbable, but nonetheless enjoyable.

Mixing the dryly sardonic and observational wit of Bugs Bunny with the flaky screwball human failings of Daffy Duck, Gossling’s comedy is an adult-sized take from an inner child and is delightfully unexpected.

You can follow Gossling on Twitter @EddieGossling and read more about him on his website at www.Commedie.com. 

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