Article: Wirtz Jokes, Satan Burns

PICTURED on the cover of his new live album, "Pianist Envy," Reverend Billy C. Wirtz looks all the world like Weird Al Yankovic's long-lost cousin, the one who's partial to boogie-woogie piano, elaborate tattoos and lizard-skin boots. Inside, however, the thoroughly irreverent reverend comes across as a blues and boogie version of Henny Youngman, pounding away at the piano and the audience's tolerance for one-liners with equal abandon.

For every joke that hits its mark, two or three miss, but like Youngman, Wirtz doesn't pause long enough to take a tally. He's a scattershot comic, after all, who knows that there's safety in numbers and that one good line can redeem a lot of bad ones. ...

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