Bob Saget brought his unique brand of raunch to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center last Saturday night. Known best for his role as Danny Tanner on the 90’s TV hit Full House, a fact he didn’t avoid during his set, Saget delivered quite the performance.
Saget is a Philadelphia native so he incorporated a bit of local humor into his act. He noted Bethlehem’s iconic blast furnaces, followed up with the (hopefully sarcastic) comment that he shit on them earlier in the day. He went to Temple University, which drew lots of applause. He then drew further applause noting that Lehigh University was close by, and after the clapping subsided, said, “Fuck Lehigh.” The crowd roared.
Speaking of the crowd, the show was not sold out. The center seating area was still largely full, however, and certainly added to the atmosphere. So much so, that one particularly vocal heckler named Jimmy became the brunt of many jokes. First Saget called him a viking due to his gratingly loud, deep voice. Although kind of a persistent pest, the heckler was actually an amusing part of the set, something that doesn’t happen very often. Saget would work him into his routine at unsuspected moments, coming back to insult Jimmy’s penis size long after he quieted down.
One of the funniest bits was supposedly a true story involving Full House co-stars Dave Coulier and John Stamos. Stamos reportedly called Saget and told him that he was to pack his bags for a an unknown destination. A limo pulled up to Saget’s house and when he opened the door he was greeted with a naked Coulier and Saget’s nephew. Coulier had a photo of Stamos with the mouth cut out and fit it around his, well, you get the idea. Saget slammed the door shut as his nephew snapped a photo. After Coulier was dressed and all the went to the airport and flew to Vegas. When they got off of the plane Stamos was there to greet them. Saget’s nephew handed Stamos his photo with the hole in the mouth and Stamos instinctively put it to his face and stuck his tongue through the hole. Saget’s nephew snapped another photo. He then showed Stamos the original photo of Coulier’s earlier act and he exclaimed, “You just blew me!”
Saget’s act ended on a quite unsuspected note: with an acoustic guitar. This part of the set, while it had its moments, dragged a bit and kind of ended the evening on a low note. He seemed well-received by the crowd in general throughout the night, even at the end with many singing “my dog licked my balls” during one of his songs. Saget mentioned that he didn’t want to offend some people, he wanted to offend everyone. Although laden with curse words, the set wasn’t nearly as offensive as some other modern day comedians. Even some of the jokes of octogenarian Don Rickles, whose show at the Sands this week Saget plugged during his set, are wittier and harsher than Saget’s act. Sometimes sounding like a teenager who just discovered curse words and tried to string them all together into a joke, Saget’s immature humor proved that even expletive-laden cock jokes still draw laughs.
