Laughter does the heart good like medicine – here's a little heart improvement from a Home Improvement alumnus....

Heart Improvement
Artist: Jim Labriola
Label: Transform Music Group
Length: 67 minutes

Hey, howya' doin'? Yes, ladies and germs – Jim Labriola is an Italian-American stand-up comedian, but you don't have to be Italian to enjoy Heart Improvement. Is he funny? Fahgettaboudit - Labriola comes off as a combination Pat Cooper and Don Rickels with maybe a little Don Corleone on the side.

But seriously, folks – for a little over an hour you can listen to this former Home Improvement co-star maneuver his way through a live audience in Florida, treating the well-churched crowd like a Vegas night club audience. He might riff one too many times on his 'heart attack' gag - and even though some of his punchlines might sound like they've been around the Borscht Belt a few times, there's enough energy and freshness in his act to elicit genuine laughs throughout the whole show. Thankfully, the New York native doesn't get maudlin, sentimental, or over-spiritual to justify his street-wise delivery. Sacred cows, run for cover...

The live sound occasionally makes it hard to catch all of Labriola's comic nuances and there are a few moments that obviously depended on visual schtick as we hear the crowd reacting to some non-verbal antics. These are minor points – but, to get sort-of scriptural, there's still enough laughter here to do the heart plenty of good.

Oh, yeah – the very funny bit about 'Uncle Dominic' being able to track down Bin Laden (if OBL owed him a few dollars)... that one goes into the 'do not use' file, I guess. Fahgettaboudit!

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, a rim-shot, and 1 badda-bing