J-L Cauvin | Keep My Enemies Closer | Self-Released
At the top of his new album, Keep My Enemies Closer, New York comic J-L Cauvin comes out swinging, launching into a five-minute diatribe about Girls creator Lena Dunham, or, as Cauvin calls her, “the patron saint of overrated shit.” In Cauvin’s view, we’ve elevated Dunham to the role of hero because, despite her unattractive physique, she’s nonetheless willing to get naked onscreen. “She’s a hero just for showing off her flaws,” Cauvin says.
Dunham’s icon status is an easy target for those who like to attack mainstream figureheads, so for a comic to tackle such a visible subject, he or she needs to put a unique spin on it—to look at it from an angle few others can find. To that end, Cauvin uses his weight—315 pounds—to justify his beef, saying, unlike Dunham, he’s “disgusted” with himself. The difference between Cauvin and Dunham, according to the former: “I’m ashamed.”
A loud personality onstage, Cauvin comes off keenly aware of the stature his presence carries. To balance the inherent power of his persona, he smartly qualifies and personalizes many of his grievances, in effect bringing the audience onto his side. When he talks about racism, he notes his own black heritage. When he claims that gay men get away with things straight men could never dream of, he makes sure to say how strongly he believes in equal rights. And when he rails against certain groups of women, he’s careful to drop in his relatively conservative views on sex.
