Rob Paravonian, guitar player, cello player, and comedian, graced the McNeil Room on Friday night. Paravonian’s unique style of musical comedy had the audience in stitches as he made fun of every genre there is. Paravonian brought his acoustic guitar along for the ride and used it to enhance his act. The audience, a crowd of about 150 RPI students, enjoyed the performance immensely.
As a child, Paravonian played the cello, and this became part of one of Paravonian’s signature bits about a famous piece, “Canon in D & Gigue,” by 17th century composer Johann Pachelbel. “Canon in D & Gigue” is a light classical piece often played at weddings and in elevators. As a child cello player, Paravonian played the cello part of this piece, which is eight single notes, repeated over and over again. Paravonian then demonstrated how the basic form of Pachelbel is present in popular rock, country, R & B, and punk songs, among others, illustrating his belief that Pachelbel is following him.
One crowd pleaser was a rock song directed towards the 14-year olds of America, which according to Paravonian, buy more records than any other age group. The song began with these two lines: “Well if your day’s going kinda bad” and “Don’t blow up your school,” and continues to reinforce its anti-explosion philosophy throughout. Much hilarity ensued.
Other highlights of the act included Paravonian’s song, in the style of a Beach Boys hot-rod song, about the “econo-box” cheap car, a demonstration of how every song on the radio could be played with two chords, and a song about a relationship so old no one knows it’s dead. The latter begins, “I got an invitation to your wedding.” Paravonian admitted he had not written anything else for that song.
Paravonian went on to demonstrate, by singing, that the lyrics of most pop songs make no sense. For example, in the “Friends” theme song-turned pop song, “I’ll Be There For You” by the Rembrandts, the lines “No one told you life would be this way,” and “Your mother warned you there’d be days like these,” contradict each other.
Although Paravonian’s act tended to jump around, go off on tangents, and in general take the audience by surprise, his comedy was well received. Paravonian covered topics familiar to college students, such as weird mascots and spring break, in addition to his jokes about music.
Paravonian’s music is available outside of his performances; he has several CDs on sale. The CDs include songs from his performances as well as many others. These CDs are available from Paravonian’s website, http://www.robprocks.com/. The website also has free mp3 files of some of Paravonian’s songs.
Overall, Paravonian’s unique brand of musical comedy is a fresh breath of lightheartedness in a music industry under the shadow of lawsuits and file sharing. His ability to make fun of everyone from Dolly Parton to Green Day to Britney Spears lends his performances extreme versatility. Parvonian is one comedian whose performances should not be missed.
