Review: At Milwaukee gig, Tim Allen shows why 'Last Man Standing' will be a hit again

We'll have to see how the recently announced "Roseanne" spin-off "The Conners" does without Roseanne Barr, but one thing is already clear. "Last Man Standing," the sitcom resurrected thanks in part to the "Roseanne"' reboot's success, is destined to be a hit (again). 

Its star, conservative comedian Tim Allen (also known, of course, for "Home Improvement," "The Santa Clause" movies and voicing Buzz Lightyear), performed two shows at the 2,500-capacity Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on Saturday. Both sold out, and that's no surprise — although the cancellation of "Standing" on ABC certainly was, considering it was the network's second-highest-rated sitcom when it was axed last year. (Its seventh season will air on Fox this fall.)

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"Roseanne's" huge ratings (before Barr burned it down with her racist tweet last month, leading to its cancellation) was a wake-up call to TV execs, who realized there's an underserved audience, and money to be made, with comedy shows featuring conservative protagonists. But it should have been obvious. These are incredibly anxious times for so many — for liberals and for conservatives. If the former can get some catharsis from a wide range of Republican-ribbing comedy shows, the latter deserve the same opportunity. 

So for his first hourlong set at the Riverside on Saturday, Allen cracked some jokes at the expense of liberal idealism and earned some hearty laughs.

California was an easy target, with Allen joking that all food was made of kale and Wonder bread had to be bought illegally from vans in the darkness of night. CNN got a jab, too, with Allen saying it's the network he gets his news from, using air quotes when he said "news." 

There was no Trump talk directly — aside from Allen encouraging the president to stop tweeting so much. But Allen also complained about how political correctness in the social media era had run amok — then, as if daring someone to tweet a complaint, did a bit where he talked about hating kids. And when Allen talked about how when he was a kid he wanted to have access to other people's money, his grandmother cracked that he was a Democrat. 

A large portion of Allen's set also tapped into the way things were. He praised the Greatest Generation for getting through the Depression and World War II, while complaining that he has to hold his daughter's hand to cross the street, even though she's 28. He reminisced about how there used to be lawn darts, until we evidently lost our coordination, and how Slip N' Slides are still sold in stores, but a lawyer and EMT have to come in every box. Allen didn't go full MAGA with his nostalgic bits, with punchlines about how unsafe the family cars were as a child. 

But while a good portion of Allen's comedy was informed by his conservative perspective Saturday, that point of view wasn't a prerequisite for a chuckle.

He waded into a hot debate divided to some degree along political lines: gun control. It's a topic he's said will be addressed on "Standing" next season, and it will be interesting to see how the show handles it. The way Allen addressed it Saturday was the night's funniest bit: He proposed honoring the Second Amendment as it was written, by allowing everyone to have a musket, before miming what a home invasion with the archaic firearm would be like. 

And he ended the show imagining how farts were created, with an angel making a pitch to God for how they could sound by blowing a trombone.

Sure, it was dumb and juvenile. But at least fart humor, unlike so many other topics in comedy, hasn't become politicized.