Andy Dick: Bizarre Barrel of Freaky, Rambling Charisma

Mixing comedy, confession and music, funnyman actor Andy Dick played his life for laughs Tuesday at the Key Club, where he has a weekly residency. His rambling, 90-minute program was less a music concert than a theatrical work-in-progress, complete with a semi-naked woman, a barefoot guitarist and his former “NewsRadio” co-star Vicki Lewis as a singing angel.

When a show begins (and ends) with a very large man upchucking on the star, you know it’s not strictly about the music. Such guerrilla-humor bits (which featured co-conspirator Paul Henderson), as well as the intentional sense of fumbling designed to keep the audience guessing, strongly recalled the late Andy Kaufman in their offbeat extremism.

Backed by his quartet, the Bitches of the Century (all men), Dick sang self-deprecating musical monologues tinged with folk, pop and blues. The best tunes addressed his travails last year with alcohol, rehab, the law and the media, as he swiped back at institutions as far-flung as Diane Sawyer and “South Park.” He also excelled at visual shtick, at one point leading the group through comic vocal effects using exaggerated physicality, a la zany bandleader Spike Jones.

Although sporadically funny, the numerous spoofs on his sexuality grew tedious, and the gratuitous flinging of racial epithets fell flat. Which was too bad, because Dick displayed the freaky charisma and the talent to do more than rely on naughty words to get a laugh.

* Andy Dick & the Bitches of the Century play every Tuesday at the Key Club, 9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 8:30 p.m. $10. (310) 786-1712.