There was time in Lars Callieou’s youth when he wished he was deaf.

“I used to watch Romper Room and I waited two years for her to say my name,” Callieou told a sparse but responsive audience August 13 in the Yardbird Suite. 

Edmonton’s own Callieou is the headliner of the hilarious three-man, stand-up comedy show Word of Mouth is Killing Us 2.

The hostess of the popular children’s TV program in the 1960s used to hold up a glassless mirror and say to the camera, “I see Bette and I see Kevin…” She would mention perhaps a dozen names.

“I’m right here you cross-eyed bitch!”

Seems Callieou’s mother was listening, and off to the bathroom they went.

“If I were deaf, she would only have washed my hands out with soap.”

Word of Mouth is an audience interactive, expletive light hour of fun – but it isn’t entirely for the whole family.

Opening was last minute replacement Sterling Scott from Saskatoon, whose theme was love and sex. 

Scott is black.

“You know those Axe commercials where the guy turns into chocolate and women walk by and they can’t grab enough of him? I’ve been chocolate all my life and that’s never happened to me!”

Next up was York Underwood, also from Saskatoon. With his very cool lightening bolt tee shirt, Underwood told a story about his father picking him in the pick-up with the dog back in the box, after his first day of Grade 1. “Son, we’re goin’ huntin’.”

The bit had the audience equally squeamish and in stitches.

The show may have dragged at times only because no one heckled, although Callieou talked about five, front-row drunken Kiwis. It seemed he was inviting the room to participate; to exchange.  

And he once sat down with a couple after a show, who were “slamming shooters.”

It was an Easter long weekend. The couple had hired a baby sitter and it was their night out.

“They were destroyed. Can you imagine them going home and putting out the eggs for their children to find? In the morning, it would be a game for everybody.”

Three out of five stars.