The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Natalie Palamides is an incredible performer. I spoke to her for my podcast in 2019. You have to see her live to truly appreciate that. But Netflix tried to demonstrate her abilities in this filmed show of “Nate” anyhow. Could’ve done without the intro from Amy Poehler, even if it …
Kevin Hart clearly cares a lot about what we think of him, despite the title of his indulgent performance he staged inside his home during COVID-19. If you’re going to bother with making a comedy special in the middle of the pandemic, you could make at least one Quibi joke, …
It’s such a joy to see Michelle Buteau’s career climbing now, and her debut solo hour special on Netflix kicks off with the voice of Cardi B introducing her to the stage at Times Square’s Sony Hall. Also got a kick out of VICE’s interview with Buteau promoting this special …
I still don’t know anyone outside of Rob Schneider’s immediate family who was asking for a Rob Schneider stand-up special on Netflix in 2020, and yet, here we are. That said… The ending, which finds Schneider crooning a Roy Orbison duet with his oldest daughter, singer/songwriter Elle King, is worth …
Until now, Sam Jay had one of the great unheralded voices in stand-up comedy. Sure, she had a great gig writing for Saturday Night Live, but too many people couldn’t actually see or hear her comedic voice. Her Netflix debut hour will rectify that. I compare Jay to the late …
It’d be both easy and a gross oversimplification for me to merely say, I enjoy Jim Gaffigan’s older stuff better, as if I’m a hipster employee in a record store in the 1990s. So I’ll focus on the positives and play up the things that make Gaffigan’s 2020 double-special for …
Jack Whitehall’s a big deal in Britain, but still a bit of an unknown to American audiences, despite multiple Netflix specials and TV series. I cannot help but feel Whitehall’s stand-up will only translate well with American viewers who’ve already fallen for the Netflix travel series he does with his …
It Started As A Joke is not just a documentary, it’s also a love story. It’s a love story about Eugene Mirman and so-called “alt-comedy”; about Mirman almost singlehandedly moving that comedy scene from Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side over to Brooklyn’s Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhood after …
This bit by Esther Povitsky about men lusting after “barely legal” teens is out of control, and you shouldn’t have needed recent allegations this summer against multiple Los Angeles comedians to make you rethink that. And yet. Povitsky at least was trying to bring it to our attention when she …
You know the comedy boom has reached its over-saturation point when, even in the middle of a global pandemic, Netflix forgets or otherwise neglects to put out a trailer in advance for one of its own original stand-up comedy specials. Or is that all part of the branding for Urzlia …
