Chris Gethard's 'Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese' album a comedic NJ tribute

Alex Biese | Asbury Park Press

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Don’t tell Chris Gethard he can’t go home again.

The West Orange-native comedian's new album, “Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese: A Comedic Tribute to New Jersey,” arrives via New Brunswick-based Don Giovanni Records on Wednesday, Dec. 18.

“Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese” is the first album in five years from Gethard, also the host of the podcast “Beautiful/Anonymous,” the author of three books and the star of the off-Broadway show and HBO special “Career Suicide.”

Gethard said the decision to create a Garden State-inspired set followed last year’s cancellation of “The Chris Gethard Show,” a talk show which made its debut on New York City public access television before a three-season run across Fusion and then truTV.

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“I was getting notes and I was getting yelled at all the time and I was trying to do weird stuff and the network was like, ‘Why don’t you do stuff that looks more like what Jimmy Fallon’s doing?’ And I’m like, ‘Because that’s definitely not the instinct behind what I’m going for,’ ” Gethard recalled. “So there was just this like three-year-long fight inside just an absolute pressure cooker.

“So coming out of that I was able to take a huge, deep breath, think about who I was, think about what failure means, what success means, think about who I want to be, and really get in touch with (the question of), ‘Why did I start doing this in the first place?’ In processing those feelings, I feel like the main thing I want to do is hang on to who I am and my humanity and not get caught up in this idea of, ‘Well, I have to go figure out a way to make as much money as I made last year.’ I think that that’s a pretty unhealthy attitude and I’ve seen a lot of people fall into it and that’s how you wind up doing a bunch of soulless stuff that you don’t love.”

Instead, Gethard returned to his roots to craft an insightful, affectionate and incredibly funny hyper-specific collection of musings designed to play to a very particular audience.

“I’m very, very aware that making an album full of jokes all about New Jersey is not going to play to a national audience,” he said. “But I had my shot at the national audience, I did that, and right now I just want to go back to who I always felt I am.”

Gethard recorded “Taylor Ham” live at the Asbury Park Brewery earlier this year, and his discussion of the meaty, contentious topic that gives the album its title earned him some immediate hostility from the Central Jersey crowd in attendance.

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“I knew someone was going to try to fight me,” said Gethard. “And I tell you, that exact moment is why I still have such a great allegiance towards New Jersey, and why I still love people from New Jersey so much.

“Because I’ve traveled all over the country doing comedy now. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve performed comedy in a bunch of different countries, and it’s rare that you find a place like New Jersey where if you’re doing smart stuff and you’re doing funny stuff, they will sit back and applaud you like no other audience. But if they smell you being disingenuous or they get a sense that you’re trying to phone it in, they’ll let you know that too. And I still think, no matter anywhere I’ve been, it’s the greatest balance of that, more than any place I’ve seen.”

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The 39-year-old Essex County native discussed that particular New Jersey balance of affectionate and confrontational ways of simultaneously viewing the world.

“It’s always made total sense to me that a lot of people in New Jersey have a chip on their shoulder,” he said. “I can’t imagine anybody else who experiences being so judged and where every joke is that we’re sort of uncouth, fist-pumping morons and yet, from the house I grew up in if I walked up the hill and turned around I could see the Manhattan skyline. We grow up within spitting distance of the greatest bastions of culture in the world. I mean, you’re right next to everything New York City has to offer and everything Philadelphia has to offer and every major institution of higher learning, all of these things are within our grasp. And yet we’re still subjected to every joke in the world (and) being told that we’re just a bunch of morons. It makes sense to me that we’re a little pissed off.

“But it also makes sense to me that we don’t tolerate any fakeness or any pretentiousness because I know at least where I grew up the main quality that earned you respect was if you worked hard and if you could put your head down and get things done. And that makes sense to me, that we’re so close to these places that are so respected and we’re so disrespected, and hard work solves all of that. So I get it, I’ve always understood why there’s a little bit of rage in the guts of myself and a lot of the people I grew up around.”

Whether it’s the Taylor Ham/pork roll conversation or the very existence of Central Jersey, around these parts we’re always willing to go to the mat for our local passion topics.

“We love nothing more in New Jersey than winning fights that no one else cares about,” said Gethard.

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And while Gov. Phil Murphy may have riled up some with his recent tweet detailing the borders between North, Central and Jersey, Gethard said he is looking forward to the governor’s social media reaction to his album.

“Hey, @GovMurphy,” Gethard said, “I can’t wait to hear what you think about my Medieval Times joke.

“Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese” by Chris Gethard is now available via Don Giovanni Records, https://chrisgethard.bandcamp.com/album/taylor-ham-egg-and-cheese.