See Dick, Head to the Grove

For kamikaze comedians, there’s a split-second just before impact when the laugh track gets so crazy that it sounds like someone’s screaming. Too often — in cases such as Lenny Bruce, John Belushi, or Sam Kinison — there’s no time left to bail. But now and again, some drugged-out joker miraculously survives. And, last summer, that lucky exception was 42-year-old man-child Andy Dick. After more than a decade packed with DUIs, indecent exposure, and public urination, Dick’s laugh-scream moment came during his booze- and Xanax-fueled freakout of July 2008. By most accounts, he hit rock bottom somewhere near Murieta, California, getting arrested for — among other things — tearing the tank top off a teenage girl. Then, following a plea deal in October, the comic was equipped with an alcohol-monitoring anklet; a drink means jail.

Now, fresh off a stint with VH1’s reality show Sober House, a rehabilitated Mr. Dick is touring his one-man show about “the trials and tribulations of addiction.” But even clean, there’s bound to be raunch, and ironically, the Improv’s sticking to its two-drink minimum rule.
Thu., March 19, 8:30 p.m., 2009