DVD Review - Del Shores: Sordid Confessions

Breaking Glass Pictures released gay comedian Leslie Jordan's standup movie My Trip Down the Pink Carpet. I wrote a review of it here. Jordan is more of an actor and he's friends with Del Shores, another gay comedian but who is more of a writer. Sordid Confessions is similarly Shores' standup movie, released by Breaking Glass Pictures, that is a tad more razor sharp. Shores' humor not only cuts but also slices open major arteries. It's not just because toward the end when the f-bombs start flying. Shores starts spilling blood with his first confession.

His confessions are things about himself, which are brutally honest, or else just plain strange. There is an awkward bit at the beginning when Shores is attacking Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and reality-show star. Shores reads from her book. He does a lot of reading actually, but apparently he wasn't allowed to read from this particular one, so his voice is muted and replaced with piano music and a scroll of titles paraphrasing what he's reading.

I understand why this is done, but it does feel awkward and not in the comedic way that is the basis of a lot of the stories that Shores tells. It's clunky or dead space that's brief but feels like forever. If he weren't allowed to read from her book, that brief section should have simply been edited out. The movie was recorded live as Shores performed in the Rose Room in Dallas, Texas, in what looks like a small, intimate, Cabaret-style theater, but obviously some editing was done after the fact. Being that Shores reiterates what the scrolling titles say, it makes the titles redundant.

This is only a minor penalty. The rest of Shores' act, which kicks off with his first confession, which surprisingly or non-surprisingly is related to Judy Garland and The Wizard of Oz had me cracking up immediately. It's from that point forward that Shores has the crowd in his hand, pretty much till the end. Like with any great comic, he's good at engaging the audience and riffing off them. He's able to use a friend who comes into the audience late and even a random black guy in the crowd who screams out to great effect.

A chunk of his material centers on penis jokes. Yet, Shores is at his best when he's going after people. Much in the way, he does well riffing off the couple of guys in the audience, Shores excels when he's responding to what people are doing, especially when people are criticizing and bashing him or being homophobic. He's especially good when those people are religious because Shores is good at quoting scripture from the Bible. Shores answers hateful letters and Facebook comments with a very harsh tongue that is hilarious.

While the show is sure or Shores to make anyone laugh with digs at Chinese and even homeless people, Shores himself is quick to point that his # 1 demographic is gay men. Straight women are a close second. In other words, his audience is those who appreciate or perhaps would lust over the half-naked poster models of whom Shores stands on his knees in front. At least, fans of Shores' play-turned-film-turned-TV series Sordid Lives would appreciate this.

Yet, at the end, Shores tells three stories, which he umbrellas as his vagina monologues. Del Shores promises that these stories will appeal to straight men and even lesbians, or those that appreciate female genitalia, and Del Shores delivers. It's very similar to what Ben Harvey and Dave Rubin do on their SiriusXM radio show The Six Pack and the segment "Crime Time" where they read police reports with crazy, sexual elements to them. It's a great cap to a DVD that has extras, including Behind-the-scenes featurette, audience interviews and footage of the poster photo shoot.

Four Stars out of Five.
Not Rated But Contains Explicit and sexual language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 29 mins.