The Ten Best Comedy Albums of 2017! Vote For #1

There were some outstanding comedy albums released in 2017, and these ten are our favorites. Unlike the Grammy’s we were not looking to pick the best special that was also sold as a limited number of albums. Everything on our list was available for sale as an album, and promoted as an album even if there was a corresponding special available as well. Many of our picks reflect some of the top up and coming comics in 2017– other comics are more established?

In 2016 you overwhelmingly picked Rich Vos V as your favorite album of the year, and in 2015, Jay Mohr won for the audio version of his special, Happy and a Lot. In 2014, our first annual album of the year award went to Big Jay Oakerson for the Crowdwork Sessions. Volume 2 is due out in 2018.

And don’t forget to vote for the best of everything in comedy in 2017! You can vote on everything on one page here, or see all the nominees, and vote for best album, best book authored by a comedian, best comedy special of the year, best comedy album, best comedy tv series, best late night host, best comedy movie, and best stand up comedian here. You can even vote for best viral video of the year. Vote for your favorites and vote every day through January 3rd.

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Now on to the Top 10 Albums of 2017! Scroll down to vote for your choice for who will join Rich Vos, Jay Mohr, and Big Jay Oakerson in the Best Album of the Year HoF.

Recorded at the Creek and the Cave in Long Island City, DREAM OCCUPATION was ANTHONY DEVITO’S follow up on his Comedy Central Half Hour special that aired earlier this year. DeVito is charming, and likeable and funny throughout, and just when you think you get his niche in stand up, he takes a sharp left turn and gets dark- really dark, and you never see it coming.  The tracks take you chronologically through Anthony’s life, explaining the evolution of his own shortcomings from childhood to high school, to college, and beyond, and it’s all great. Dream Occupation is a home run.  It’s been a great year for DeVito; in addition to releasing his debut album and getting his first half hour special, he also got a spot on Colbert, a gig as Sam Morrill’s on-screen producer on MSG’s People Talking Sports show and his Rad Dudecast Podcast is a hit. He’s just getting started, and what a great start.

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DAVE TEMPLE is calling his album THE 1st ONE, but nothing about this album sounds like a debut run. Temple is so smooth, so confident on stage, that it sounds like he’s been doing this his whole life. Recorded at the Comedy Works in Bristol, Pennsylvania, Temple weaves some crowd work in and out of his material, natrually riffing with the audience, sharing personal stories and laying down some life lessons. You’ll find out why he has one gay white friend, the real reason you don’t want to go to jail, and how he handled the sex talk with his kid.   Originally from Philly, Dave started doing stand up as a challenge from his friends, and ten years later he’s got a strong act. Read more about Dave and the Center City Comedy Crew, and grab The 1st One wherever records are sold. The 2nd can’t be far behind.

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JOEL KIM BOOSTER wants you to know he’s Korean, he’s gay, and was raised in the midwest.  He was adopted by white conservative religious mid-westerners, and that’s the jumping off point for Joel’s tremendous debut album, MODEL MINORITY.   The album is funny all the way through with some flashes of brilliance sprinkled in including a bit about how the midwest is just as racist as the south only without the personality. Joel became a rising star in Chicago, and moved to Brooklyn, and just when we got used to having him here, uprooted and headed for the other coast because of course, tv is just waiting for his life story.  He killed as one of Just for Laughs New Faces in Montreal in 2016, has had two sets on Conan since, and debuted his Comedy Central half hour this year. Model Minority was recorded at Ars Nova in NYC in front of a sold-out crowd, and available in all the usual places.  

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He looks like a lumberjack, and stars on Canada’s gigantic hit comedy series Letterkenny, and soon everyone in the states will know him too.  K TREVOR WILSON’s new album, SORRY! (A CANADIAN ALBUM) is his second- and this one’s devoted to his home nation of Canada.  Trevor talks about traveling from coast to coast through his native land, the oddities found in different provinces, the key differences between Vancouverites and Maritimers, and why everyone in Canada hates people from Toronto. (Trevor, btw is from Toronto).  No you don’t have to be from Canada to appreciate it, if you’re familiar with big cities, small towns, and the middle of nowhere, you will be able to identify just fine with this endearing, hilarious love letter to the oddness of Canada. Sorry! is full of the kind of love-hate you can only have for the place where you are from.  Recorded at Rumors Comedy Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. K Trev is a powerhouse who you might remember from his crushing performance on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle or his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this year. 

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Last year Seeso released LAURIE KILMARTIN’s hour special 45 JOKES ABOUT MY DEAD DAD in the last days of 2016, too late to make any of our lists, so we’re happy that the release of the album version this year gave us a chance to shine a spotlight on this great material. It’s so twisted and dark, but with a deeply emotional core to it making it cathartic as well as hilarious. Back in 2014, Kilmartin’s father was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Laurie made headlines when she live-tweeted his final weeks in hospice care, with some seriously dark jokes- the kind of jokes you might whisper to a sibling in a wickedly twisted moment, but never utter loud enough for someone else to hear for fear they’d think you were a creep. Months later, she used that same raw emotion to find the funny in some dark times for the stage, and in 2017 Kilmartin finally got the chance to release the album recorded that night. Anyone who has ever smirked, grinned or chuckled or laughed out loud at something awful and enjoyed how great it felt, this album is for you. It’s a terrific reminder that in the right hands, anything can be funny.

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Performed in front of a sold-out crowd at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA, YOU LET ME DOWN is JOE DEROSA’s third album with Comedy Central Records, and it’s as wonderfully dark and uncomfortable as you’ve come to expect from him.  We love DeRosa’s willingness to look under rocks of all kinds to examine the creepy creatures who hide beneath and this special includes plenty of that. Full dark satire, the album examines our culture’s obsessive relationship with sports, and our reverence for athletic achievement, the anatomy of a boss (of anything),  the difference between sociopaths and psychopaths, and other odd facets of our culture.  Hate Arizona? Well Joe will tell you why you should, and get ready for Joe’s prescient list of celebrities who are shitty, and remember he recorded this long before America began outting its powerful assholes.  You Let Me Down is available everywhere, and there’s no better time to check it out than now.

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JANELLE JAMES has been on @midnight, on Wyatt Cenac’s Night Train, she opened for Chris Rock’s Total Blackout Tour, and before that she toured with Hannibal Buress. She was a JFL New Face in 2016, named one of the funniest people in Brooklyn, and…in 2017 she put out a strong contender for album of the year. BLACK AND MILD is James’ first recording, and she covers pop culture from her own unique point of view, taking on reality television (“white lady crying” is her favorite show on tv…and…”it’s always on”), her fascination with Melania Trump’s masterful ability to avoid touching her husband, and the phenomenon known as “thigh gap.” She also covers personal ground, talking about being messed up as a kid by her macho dad, discovering masturbation and struggling with the increased sex drive that comes along with being in your thirties. Throughout the album, James conveys an intimacy, as if you’re bullshitting with a hilarious friend.  James recorded her album at the infamous Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis, considered by many to be one of the best clubs in the country. 

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Even if you haven’t heard the album yet, you’ve probably heard SHANE TORRES talking about how he cannot comprehend America’s hatred of Guy Fieri or love for Anthony Bourdain because his Conan performance that covered that ground was a viral sensation earlier this year.  Torres’ debut album, ESTABLISHED 1981 includes Shane’s thoughts on celebrity chefs and so much more.  Torres hails from Fort Worth Texas, but lives in New York City now and his style incorporates the best of both.  Don’t let his laid-back Texas drawl fool you, Torres packs a great punch whether he’s talking about why he hates Game of Thrones, or giving great advice on why you should never try new sex moves on your wedding night, or telling a layered skillfully constructed story about a man who walked into a post office.  The album, which was recorded at the great Comedy Club on State in Madison Wisconsin, (considered by many to be the best club in the country) takes Torres’ Comedy Central half-hour and expands on it.  If don’t already know Torres, it’s time you checked out what he’s capable of.  It’s a killer debut album that goes toe to toe with performers on their third and fourth albums.  Get it on iTunes, Amazon, and everywhere else that albums are available.

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New York comedian (by way of Cleveland, by way of Allentown, Pa) JIM TEWS continues to blow us away with his accomplishments throughout every form of media, including creating a comedy scene, and then making a documentary about it, being featured in an episode of Louie, publishing a New York Times bestselling book called Felines of New York, being chosen as one of JFL’s New Faces, creating starring and co-writing two hit web series but what it’s really all about is comedy, and Tews is kicking ass there too.  His debut album, I WAS IN BAND is a hilarious look inside the head of a high school band nerd.  Hilarious stories of the awkwardness of being in band (not “a band” just “band”,) like the first time he touched a boob, run throughout the album. Jim is a perfect blend of open and candid about his nerdiness, with a sincerity that is very endearing and relatable. More self-reflective than preachy, if you’re tired of hearing about current events, this album is exactly what you’re looking for.  Tews is a sharply skilled comedian, incredibly underrated with a wide comedic range. Tews recorded I Was in Band where his comedy career began- in Cleveland- at the CODA.

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While working in NY at Goldman Sachs, CARMEN LYNCH quit her job to become a comedian, and we’re glad she did. Born in California, this military baby spent years living in Spain and can perform in both Spanish and English. Her new album, DANCE LIKE YOU DON’T NEED THE MONEY, recorded at the Punchline in San Francisco proves that, complete with a bonus track in Spanish. Lynch is remarkably skilled in the unexpected and that sometimes veers off into dark places.  Shots are fired, Lynch is at her best when she’s being judgemental, but she also has great self-analytical moments.  She doesn’t think like other people, and that is the hallmark of a great comedian. Whether she’s talking about why she is obsessed with the elderly, the hazards of being really tall (like having a high vagina), the implications of not being able to stick an egg back into a chicken, or how to find out if a guy wants to have kids with you, Lynch is embracing her weird thoughts in her debut album, and the result is one of our favorite releases this year.

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