Tracy Morgan is a funny guy and a big star, but he had his ass handed to him by a local boy on Friday. Then again, opener Graham Clark happened to be speaking the language of a near sold-out crowd at the Red Robinson Show Theatre, raising enormous cheers over the “shitty” Olympics and beefing about the pointlessness of “rich people” saving trees in Stanley Park. Former SNL player and 30 Rock star Morgan spoke in a more universal if less pointed tongue, spending most of his performance on the subjects of pussy, dick, and what happens when you put the two together. “Where are all the niggers at?” he asked about Vancouver, at the top of an hourlong set. “And who fucks all the fat white chicks?”

The rest of the night had more or less the same tone, with Morgan trying hard to offend. He announced that he’d arrived to “fuck a white woman”, explaining (probably accurately), “all my pornos are white women from Vancouver.” He bitched that black ladies were “lame fucks”, impersonated a man chewing gum while he whacked off, proclaimed that he loved “to eat me some booty-hole”, urged women not to be ashamed of their pussy farts—“that’s just the pussy speakin’ to you, fellas”—and cautioned men that a finger in the asshole is fine, but “if you let her go past the knuckle—you’re gay.”

If Morgan’s material had gone past the knuckle, it might have been a better night. But the subject matter was obvious, and conservative, and the laughs consistently sewer-level, aside from a few brief flights of imagination. He admitted he enjoyed going to the supermarket “just to watch ladies buy cucumbers”, and a bit about “white rage” was relatively inspired. “You muthafuckas are tick-tick boom,” he said. “I’m concerned for white women. Bury you in the basement and then join the search party looking for your ass. Tell white ladies to stay the fuck out of Cancun.” This turned into a great bit about the Incredible Hulk, who “is not a superhero”, according to Morgan. “The Incredible Hulk is a drunk, white motherfucker in a bar—I don’t care about your muthafuckin’ gamma rays, take that shit outside!”

Morgan is likable and, as a perpetually horny 40-year-old child, fascinating in his own right. But in the end, it was a sloppy and aimless performance, aptly symbolized by the fact that his fly was undone for the entire show.

Georgia Straight, April 2009