NUVO

4.5 stars

Phil van Hest lives up to the hype and delivers a smart, funny and timely skewering of bankers and the politicians who love them. He takes an historical approach in his performance, mixing humor with pointed barbs as he shifts his focus from the city of Ur to goats to Babylon to the Federal Reserve to Tea Baggers -- and to just about every imaginable topic in between. “At this point, if I were America I’d change my name to Canada and quit picking up the phone,” he growls near the end of his hour-long show. Van Hest’s fed-up, populist brand of humor salves the pain of our uncertain economic times. - Matt McClure