Bathroom Wall

A mixture of so-so standup routines and comedy-music hybrids a la Adam Sandler, Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon provides just enough laughs on The Bathroom Wall to satisfy one's funny bone--for the first listen or two, anyway. Unfortunately, with the exception of his masterful impressions (a hilarious Bono among them) and the amusing Prince takeoff "Idiot Boyfriend," Fallon's shtick gets old pretty fast. On the music side, "Road Rage" has a few funny lines, but the Beastie Boys-inspired "(I Can't Play) Basketball" falls flat, as does the country-tinged "Drinking in the Woods." Meanwhile, for the standup portion, Fallon panders to his college audience with routines about "the walk of shame" and hotplates that might have worked in person, but on record sound shopworn and thin. As an impressionist, Fallon has a bright future, but he needs better material before putting out his next comedy record, even one as short (under 37 minutes) as this one. --Matthew Cooke