Ralphie May had a message to deliver Thursday at the Crest Theater for those who are haters, lovers, racists, gay or homophobes.

Embrace it. Own it.

After an entertaining 20-minute warm-up by Tennessee comedian Billy Wayne Davis, May strode onstage to Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." That was the beginning of a two-hour stream of consciousness that could have offended just about anyone. No problem; May owned it.

He peppered his show with references to Sacramento, from the expected Schwarzenegger imitation, "Welcome to Kal E Fonya," to talking about getting "stoned as a biblical whore" in Capitol Park and having a squirrel come up and ask for a hit.

"The K Street bums all look like wizards to me," May declared, "the way they dress and such. The only way to tell them apart from real wizards is that wizards don't have dogs."

May mocked all races. His jokes weren't meant to hurt but to point out stereotypes and the humor in each of them. "The blacks in this country can no longer complain about being kept down by 'The Man,' " he said. "With Obama in office, now they are 'The Man.' So, now, they have to start tipping 20 percent just like the rest of us."

He talked about the absurdity of hate, pointing out that gay men and rednecks share a hatred of sleeves. He added that to eliminate gays, heterosexual sex should be outlawed. "Isn't that obvious?" he asked. "Everyone knows that it takes two straight people to make a homosexual."

Additional targets included Tiger Woods and Muslims.

"Nike won't take away Tiger's endorsement deal. Their motto is 'Just Do It' and 'Swoosh!' " Of Muslims, May said, "Do you really want 72 nagging virgins waiting for you in heaven?"

May explained his reasons for smoking pot but not drinking alcohol with a story about his first drinking party in the woods of Tennessee. He said one of his friends passed out and then told of the unprintable but hilarious things that he saw happen to him. In contrast, May said, "When I smoked pot for the first time, all I remember was eating the most delicious pancakes in the world."

His humor is like that of many comedy greats who pushed the status quo -- Lenny Bruce, Sam Kinison, Doug Stanhope and Richard Pryor. It earned him certain bragging rights. May was the first comedian in more than 10 years to receive a standing ovation on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno.

Well done, Ralphie. Well done.

Photos by: Erin Haight

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Steven Bloom is the founder of SacramentoComedy.Com, the official guide to the Sacramento comedy scene. This website is dedicated to comedian interviews, comedian biographies and videos, and consolidation all of theSacramento comedy events into a single comedy calendar for your convenience. You can send your questions directly to The Comedy Guy at Steven@SacramentoComedy.Com.