MUSIC

Robert Schimmel

Unprotected

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Warner Bros

"Working blue" is what stand-up comedians call using jokes based on sex. Robert Schimmel, however, doesn't just work blue, he lives blue. The diminutive Schimmel's third comedy album, Unprotected, is a recording of his HBO special, and continues the sex-based theme of his previous two albums. But even if you've seen the special or seen Schimmel do his routine on the Conan O'Brien show, the hysterical routine is in no way diminished by repetition.

What makes Unprotected's sex talk work is that it rises above the level of moronic frat-boy humour. It's not that the album is afraid of the scatological (Schimmel describes an exchange between his wife and himself: "Maybe you suffer from premature ejaculation." "Does it look like I'm suffering? Those aren't tears on your belly."). It's that the album isn't potty-mouthed for its own sake (hello, South Park). It focuses on Schimmel's family life, and its central point is our common insecurities about sex and the absurdities they drive us to: peeking down the TV screen trying to see what porn videos don't show; explaining sex to the daughter. So despite his swagger, Schimmel comes across as a real person, oddly tender to his wife, and it's his emotional closeness that makes Unprotected cut so close to the (funny) bone. A hilarious release from a star of the stand-up circuit. A- --DARYL SNG