Jay & Eytan

So Busy So Tired

BY Vish KhannaPublished Aug 2, 2018

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If the sketch comedy record is a little uncommon in an age when new standup specials are released every few hours of every single day of every single month, Jay Wells L'Ecuyer & Eytan Millstone have put the work in to make So Busy So Tired a gold standard of the form.
 
The popular and prolific Toronto pair have been living in New York for the past five years, and their online and real-life audiences are growing. As such, there's a certain swagger here; they confidently lampoon Canadian "Heritage Moments" like hockey fights and health care, but also go in to satirize all manner of universal experiences.
 
Imagine a Yelp restaurant review being scrutinized for context by a suspicious judge and jury, or a radio station so desperate for content, they dispatch a couple of DJs to broadcast and comment on a fireworks display. What if we could be straight up with technology like Google Maps, and tell it to smarten up and stop interrupting our favourite songs? Jay & Eytan ponder such things and gently attack them, executing comedic premises like exacting scientists.
 
The standout bit here is "Millenial Bros," which feels loosely connected to "Meeting Up With Your Friends," only because both examine a moment in time, while also highlighting how we all shift a little as we age. The latter is a short riff highlighting how we might not really appreciate the serenity and joy of our 20s until our 30s, when life comes at you fast (it also feeds into the album's title). "Millenial Bros" is the longest sketch here and the duo's commitment to the idea — where two douche-y sounding dudes somehow exhibit the utmost wokeness — makes it a brilliant listen.
 
So Busy So Tired is contemporary and cool but also feels timelessly relatable. Jay & Eytan sound like they're in a coming-of-age zone, both professionally in their craft and personally, and that gives their stocktaking of human behaviour and the current socio-political landscape a rather hilarious kind of urgency.
(Comedy Records)

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