Review: Lavell Crawford, “New Look, Same Funny!” on Showtime

Lavell Crawford, who burst onto the national scene a decade ago thanks to Last Comic Standing, then found himself a role in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has lost a lot of weight over the past couple of years.

And yet, despite already joking about his weight loss in his 2017 Showtime special, he’s referring to it directly in the title for his 2019 follow-up.

He devotes half of the new hour to his decision to undergo gastric sleeve surgery, with jokes about how he endured good nurse-evil nurse treatment afterward, and how the surgery impacted his relationship with his wife. Crawford stops for a minute to show off his son’s drawing depicting his weight-loss transformation, which appears not only on the stage’s massive backdrop, but also on the back of his jacket. And sure, he hopes he inspires other people to consider the surgery or just get healthier. But despite all of that, and the title, that’s not the main point, or rather turning point, in his 2019 comedy act.

The biggest development in his life now? Turning 50.

Since Crawford hit the milestone age, he has realized he simply has neither the time nor the need to care about many of the things that might have bugged him before.

Read my full review in Decider.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cC9uQ7Ek9k

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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