Sharp Stand-Up in Down-Scale ‘Love Master’

“The Love Master” is a concert film starring Craig Shoemaker, who was voted funniest male stand-up comedian in this year’s American Comedy Awards. Given a quasi-autobiographical framework, “The Love Master,” as a movie, is as low on style as it is on budget. Still, it’s a good introduction to a talented and distinctive performer.

Shoemaker is a nice-looking, absolutely normal-seeming white American male, the kind that pleases mothers when their daughters bring them home to meet them. But somewhere along the line, he hit upon an alter ego he calls “the Love Master.”

When Shoemaker speaks as the Love Master, he is full of witty braggadocio about his sexual endowment and prowess. It is an amusing and outrageous device with which to set off the average guy’s insecurities. But Shoemaker has more to offer than this. He is a gifted impressionist--from “The Andy Griffith Show’s” Barney Fife to Luciano Pavarotti--and wide-ranging commentator on the quirks and ironies of modern American life. He also has sharp, fast takes on past decades, particularly the ‘70s, when he was growing up.

The concert’s format is to turn Shoemaker’s performance into a voyage of personal self-discovery, a journey to self-acceptance and self-assurance. So it’s not surprising the first person the off-stage Shoemaker encounters is his therapist (George Wendt).

This encounter triggers a trip through Shoemaker’s childhood as the only male growing up with a divorced mother given to belly dancing, a grandmother given to pot-smoking and an older sister. Along the way Shoemaker does land a dream date with Farrah Fawcett, but she’s interested in him as the Love Master rather than as himself. Not too surprisingly, at the fade-out all ends well for Shoemaker.

It’s tough to make a comedy concert--staged, incidentally, at the Improv in Tempe, Ariz.--a cinematic experience, and first-time director Michael Goldberg’s approach is workmanlike and efficient rather than inspired.

As a film, “The Love Master” is elementary to the utmost. Your attention may wander as a sense of repetition sets in from time to time. But Shoemaker’s talent and personality come across loud and clear.

* MPAA rating: R for language, sex-related humor and some drug content. Times guidelines: The film’s humor is unsuitable for preteens.

‘The Love Master’

Craig Shoemaker: Craig

Farrah Fawcett: Craig’s Dream Date

Courtney Thorne-Smith: Deb

Harley Jane Kozak: Karen

Karen Witter: Marie

Kurt Rambis: Kurt

George Wendt: Therapist

A Rocket Pictures presentation of a Coleman/Breen production. Director Michael Goldberg. Producer Tom Coleman. Executive producers Alan David, Mark Breen. Cinematographers Phil Parmet, Jeff Zimmerman. Editors Richard Curris, Jeremy Kasten. Costumes Maud Kersnowski. Music Michael Skloff, Giorgio Bertucelli. Art director Cherie Baker. Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Plaza, 1067 Glendon Ave., Westwood, (310) 208-3097.