Carla Ulbrich visited the Tower for the very first time April 07, and for a firstup did brilliant box office. On the night she delivered a stonkingly good performance full of verve, wit and extraordinarily excellent guitar playing. Ulbrich, a name to book even if you can't pronounce it.
Very talented, very funny, very personable, and an easy act to work with.
We would be hard pressed to imagine anyone not enjoying a set from this young woman ... thoughtful and intelligent, sometimes clever observations about life are written in an often wry and humorous manner. They're placed over very strong melodies and guitar work that is recognized as some of the best in her genre"
Sinfully silly
She's one of Dr. Demento's favorites, and now we know why. How many women can sing in Klingon, after all? Carla Ulbrich, the Queen of Parody, can make surgical procedures a laughing matter, as she ably demonstrated Friday at the Minstrel in Morris Township, where she crooned about losing one's derriere, stealing boyfriends and experiencing hospital life in all its invasive glory.
If you want to start your Monday on an upbeat note, check out Carla's song about copyrighting everyone's favorite four-letter word. Our only quibble with the Minstrel show was its sparse attendance. The good news, however, is that this endearingly silly South Carolinian now makes her home in Somerset, NJ. So your odds of catching this funny bone infection again should be pretty good.
She's one of Dr. Demento's favorites, and now we know why. How many women can sing in Klingon, after all? Carla Ulbrich, the Queen of Parody, can make surgical procedures a laughing matter, as she ably demonstrated Friday at the Minstrel in Morris Township, where she crooned about losing one's derriere, stealing boyfriends and experiencing hospital life in all its invasive glory.
If you want to start your Monday on an upbeat note, check out Carla's song about copyrighting everyone's favorite four-letter word. Our only quibble with the Minstrel show was its sparse attendance. The good news, however, is that this endearingly silly South Carolinian now makes her home in Somerset, NJ. So your odds of catching this funny bone infection again should be pretty good.
... a really good show. Her material is pretty remarkable. I find it thoughtful, funny, sensitive, kind of out in "left field,"-- like I used to find Steve Martin's humor... clever, a talented guitarist, and a stage presence that convinces audiences that the characters she sings about, she really cares about, or she knows something about them... the monologs between tunes really work tying the songs to universal (as well as unique) experiences audiences can identify.
"... And therein lies Carla's charm: just under the caustic zingers that pepper her lyrics is genuine warmth and even a sense of optimism in spite of everything, delivered with some skillful guitar strumming at a toe-tapping pace. Maybe she's not such an anomaly in the folk world after all."
Click below to read full review of live show at Luna Star in N Miami
Live Review of Decatur Decorum Showcase at Eddie's Attic
.... Another crowd-pleaser, Ulbrich shined brightly on several funny numbers of her own (including the controversial "What If Your Girlfriend Was Gone?" which has actually generated hate mail for her from jealous, angry women) and on a beautiful song about a child prodigy ("Boy Wonder"). The night's biggest surprise, however, came when the perky, cheerful Ulbrich abandoned her vocals entirely to play a classical guitar instrumental -- a Brazilian Waltz which she swooped seamlessly into "Zippidee Doo-Dah" from Walt Disney's Song of the South.
Serving as emcee for the event was Performer's Blake Guthrie, no stranger to offbeat humor himself, who had the unenviable task of following Ulbrich. Stepping onto the stage after her astounding performance, it was hardly all Guthrie could do to stammer out, "Scuse me while I tune my guitar for 10 minutes."
Carla is cute as a button, hysterically funny and a phenomenal guitarist, possessing and original and lyrically creative folk repertoire.
Her wit and humor are so fresh...it should be date coded.
03/28/2010
Artist: Carla Ulbrich
Album: Live From Outer Space
Label: Romantic Devil Records
Website: http://www.carlau.com
Genre: parody, comedy
Technical Grade: 10/10
Production/Musicianship Grade: 10/10
Overall Talent Level: 10/10
Songwriting Skills: 10/10
Performance Skill: 10/10
Best Songs: Duet With A Klingon, One Good Song, If I Had The Copyright
CD Review:
Self described, “professional smart aleck”, Carla Ulbrich has released a CD, Live From Outer Space, that perfectly showcases her comic wit and beautifully understated guitar work. Recorded before an audience at the Sirius XM Radio Performance Theater, Live From Outer Space demonstrates Ulbrich’s comic ease and timing with between song patter and snippets of partial parodies.
I smiled from the very beginning. Ulbrich’s southern accent and insightful wit are very engaging. Her song parodies range from silly to raunchy and stuck in my head long after the music stopped. It’s hard to settle on a favorite song. Duet With A Klingon was an early favorite but after repeated listening, I found myself leaning toward What If Your Butt Was Gone. And lately I’ve been singing If I Had The Copyright On The Word #%@&.
Throughout the CD, other than her duet with a Klingon, it’s Ulbrich alone on stage with her guitar and she fills the space very well. Her guitar work is versatile and artfully understated. Her vocals are clear with just the right amount of wise-guy insouciance. Her between song monologues include stories about coffee enemas and hilarious bad song ideas.
I love Live From Outer Space. I’ve listened to it repeatedly and played it for friends and family. How can you go wrong with a girl who is not afraid to sing the phrase, “hiding the salami”? And it doesn’t hurt that her go-go booted cartoon image on the CD cover has an “I Dream Of Jeanie” hotness. Live From Outer Space is a lot of fun. If you like song parodies that will make you laugh out loud, check out Live From Outer Space.
There's always, always, always room for more humorous music, especially when it comes from a woman with a mouth that will sometimes put the shine of envy in a stevedore's eye. Carla Ulbrich is just such a comediette…er, comedienne...um, comedienette. This CD of 31 short cuts was broadcast on the Sirius XM Radio Performance Theater to an audience of Ulbrich fans hellbent on quirky rib-tickling…which they got in spades. Not Robert Schimmel nasty, not Bill Hicks intense, just really cool take-offs on famous songs (including REO Speedwagon's Take It on the Run"and John Lennon's Watching the Wheels), ditties Bill Cosby would never pen. Ya know, like about maxi pads and old condoms, among matters less visceral.
The disc is indeed, save for one cut (Duet with a Klingon, which is exactly what it says it is), live, accompanied by between-song banter from this self-described "professional smart aleck". Ulrich has a tart chirpy voice and accompanies herself on guitar, save for one song with dueted vocals—the Klingon tune of course—and one with a full band, the studio version of the Trekophile song. She was quite well liked by the mega-cool Dr. Demento, who included two Ulbrich numbers on his Best Ofs, a tribute she of course locates sardonic material in, being the delightfully eternal grump and negativist she is…though the cool cover cartoon by Debbie Ohi makes her appear an innocent troubadoric naif (don't be deceived!).
Then there's the persistent contrarianism, including the slab's title, as Ulrich is earthy and ribald, an alien only by dint of being too honest in her own society, as all comics are. Don't play this while the kids are romping around either. All the h-mpings, b-tts -sses and other semantic paraphernalia will stun them like deer in headlights just before setting 'em to giggling as though naughty imps and goblins. That'll bring Child Protective Services knocking down the door shortly thereafter, so forestall such shenanigans and spin the slab after tucking little Lancelot and tiny Guinevere in for the night.
However, even at a sensible 41:27, Live from Outer Space is over way too soon. A triple-disc set would've been righteous. Thus, Ms. Ulbrich is warned she should see to it next time around, even if she has to h-mp her artsy fartsy -ss off to produce the f-cking thing, lest we punters get p-ssed and tear sh-t up in mad Klingon fury.
It could happen!
Favorite Albums of 2009:
Carla Ulbrich may be the funniest singer/songwriter working right now. This album made me laugh really hard, even on the second and third listens. Often bawdy, always hilarious. The highlight for me was “Duet With a Klingon.”
Best of 2009: Carla Ulbrich "Live From Outer Space"
So on a really high tension day with my wife and son in the car I slipped Live From Outer Space into the CD for a little comic relief and was blessed with a lot of comic relief. For anyone unfamiliar with Carla Ulbrich the chanteuse cum stand-up comic plays a wicked guitar and has even added the harmonica to her acoustic repertoire. Live From Outer Space has a lot going for it but there is one caveat out of the starting block for audiophiles: uneven sound quality. I found myself fiddling with the volume half a dozen time s while listening to the CD. The CD was recorded at the Sirius XM Radio Performance Theatre on the Romantic Devil Records label.
Live From Outer Space is a solid mixture of short observational stand-up bits blending with musical bits which vary in length from full length songs to snippets. One of the best musical bits that had the car in stitches was the 13th track called Bad Song Ideas. I had a soft spot too for the stand-up bit about grammar called The Scooter Store. My teenage son delighted in If I Had The Copyright which is a very funny track about the ubiquitous F-bomb. All in all this is a delightful CD and will get multiple plays over the next few days. Ulbrich is smart and funny and is gifted with a wonderful voice.
As mentioned earlier there is only one caveat to adding this to your CD collection and that is that the sound engineer could have used a little more experience working with a live situation. It isn’t enough to really be an issue but some audio nuts (like my partner) might find it a tad annoying. For my own part the occasional need to adjust the volume did not detract from the laughs and I think my wife is still chuckling over a bit about pads with wings.
Carla Ulbrich's CD "Live From Outer Space" is chocked full of enough smiles to make your face hurt. It's a live recording of lighthearted musical portraits of everyday life. Carla's warped and raw sense of humor, in her parodies and original compositions, not only broaches subjects one shouldn't talk about, she also sings about them in full detail without blushing. They make you tilt your head and ponder unusual things like "What if my butt was actually gone?" and "I never knew there were so many slang terms for "IT," and "Why would someone write a song about your colon?" and then you think, "Ah!, it's Carla Ulbrich, that's why!" Her CD draws you into the recorded audience chatter and enjoyment as if you were right there, snuggled up on a couch with friends at an intimate house concert, laughing at yourselves. For the moment, the somber worries of everyday drift away and you are laughing. If laughter is good medicine, then this CD heals.
I’ve been a fan of Carla Ulbrich since I heard her hysterical folk-inspired guitar songs two years ago. There was “I Have To Kill You Now,” where she sings about taking antihistamines and then not remembering anything she said during an interview, and then there was the Dr. Demento favorite “What If Your Girlfriend Was Gone?”
Recently I was thrilled to find her new album, Live from Outer Space. While Ulbrich often focuses on just plain humor rather than geek-specific humor, she does have some truly awesome geek-flavored songs on this album.
The first is, of course, “Duet with a Klingon” (which I played on the weekly podcast a couple of weeks ago) where she parodies “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off.” I’d quote it, but I don’t have a Klingon dictionary handy to insert the Klingon’s part of the duet, but I recommend a listen. Trust me, it’s hysterical.
But I can quote another geeky song on the album, which is “The Force is the Force,” a parody of “A Horse is a Horse.”
The force is the force, of course, of course
And no one can tell you about the force
Except of course a Jedi Knight
And most of them are dead!
The album is recorded live, so we get to hear Carla’s chatter between songs, some of these tracks are as funny as her songs. She’s a sarcastic woman, and whenever she tries to write a love song it always comes out rather odd. However, a friend still asked her to write a song for his wedding, “even though he’s very familiar with [her] song writing.” So she came up with a parody of “From a Distance:” “From a distance, your breath is not that bad…” but strangely, they didn’t go for that. She talks about a variety of subjects including her home in Clemson, SC and coffee enemas, often breaking into song in the middle of the story: “The colon! Soon will be making another run!” (to the tune of the “Love Boat” theme).
Her comedy is great, but Ulbrich’s real talent is in her music. She proves that sometimes censoring a word is funnier than actually swearing, as she does in, “If I Had the Copyright (on the Word F——)” where she plays a harmonica to bleep the word.
If I had the copyright on the word ——
I’d say —— this job and yourself, you dumb ——
No need for hard work and no need for luck
If I had the copyright on the word ——
It’s filthy! It’s nasty! Unseemly and vile!
That all may be true but it’s so versatile
So often deleted, this fine expletive
Is a verb, a noun, and an adjective!
Carla keeps the humor on a PG level despite the coffee enemas, a joke about overhearing her grandmother discussing her breasts, and the —— song. If you like comedy mixed with your funny music, you definitely need to pick up this album. (A bonus if you’re from the South; her humor is not all southern, but as a North Carolina native, I certainly appreciated the difference between North and South Carolina bit.)
Mur Lafferty is an author and podcaster. She is the host and producer of the Tor.com Story Podcast and I Should Be Writing and the author of Playing For Keeps, among other things. You can find all of her projects at Murverse.com.
Carla is AWESOME! She was the highlight of our corporate event, and had our entire staff laughing with tears rolling down our cheeks. She performed for a group of medical professionals, and with her extensive background as a "professional" patient, her hysterical songs and stories fit us perfectly. She's bubbly, outgoing and witty! With an emphatic YES, we would recommend Carla Ulbrich for any occassion.
Carla was fantastic. The entire process from booking to event completion was very easy. Carla was prompt, prepared and very entertaining. She managed to work into her act, specific information about us that made the performance much more personal. I would recommend Carla to anybody in need of professional, quality entertainment.
We loved having Carla perform at the conference and my boss received very positive feedback. I also think she's found her calling. Her ability to involve the audience and to incorporate unique aspects of our business amazed the audience and had them laughing more than they thought possible at a healthcare conference. Carla made our reception the talk of the conference.
Carla led a near-perfect example of the ideal program for our Fellowship. It was all first class.
What a Treat!
Loved it!!!!
Useful. Creative and Entertaining
Great! Authentic!
Perfect!
This, Carla, was just wonderful -- so witty, funny, intelligent, thought provoking, heart warming, clever, funny. Extraordinarily incredible timing in her comedy. Just GREAT! I loved this. Carla, you are a poet and a philosopher and a comedienne.
What a wonderfully talented woman. She made me laff and cry. A gift to us all.
She's a WOW!!! From a "prednisone" colleague, she nailed it!!
Great, enjoyed her.
Wonderful, I loved Carla's wit and music!
Fantastic Recovery! Great voice!
Great Ending!
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed you, your music and your stage presence at the AATH conference. What a delight and such a powerful message about laughing through the tough times - from someone who's been there and done the patient scene. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and whimsy.
Carla comes back! She was here a few years ago and had people rolling in the aisles with her irreverent and self-deprecating humor. She can play and sing fine, but what she does best is write these hilarious little ditties that you have to play over a few times because you were laughing too hard at the last line to understand the next. We reviewed her first album in these pages back in the year 2000. I think it was a wee bit better than this one; maybe that's sophomore jinx, but the songs are not sophomoric. They're tantalizingly erudite. If you only go to one show at Acoustic Sounds this year, this here should be it. If you can't make the show and want to know what's so funny, visit www.carlau.com and ask her how to join the Difficult Last Name Club.
To find out what a pig pickin' is,
what filk music is and what Carla does in her spare time, click below to read an online interview with Carla.