The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Jimmy O. Yang went from Silicon Valley on HBO to Space Force on Netflix. That’s a great deal! That’s not the Good Deal he’s talking about in his first stand-up special, though. He’s more interested in basic stereotypes and exploring his fame. Too much of this hour, though, covers territory …
Jerry Seinfeld doesn’t play by today’s comedy rules. He spent 22 years touring before presenting this hour of jokes on Netflix. Which means if you’re a Seinfeld fan, you’ve heard some of this stuff two decades ago now. As I wrote in May: All of which makes Seinfeld even more …
Long-form improv doesn’t have much of a track record onscreen, because it’s so difficult to translate a completely ad-libbed show that exists in the moment and capture it for future audiences. So Netflix gave Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz three separate episodes to showcase their improv chops. Two-prov allows the …
I don’t know why Netflix keeps giving Chris D’Elia stand-up comedy specials, when his talents aren’t stand-up related. And I certainly don’t know why this bit is highlighted in the trailer, because it wasn’t great then and aged so poorly so quickly. As I wrote even in April: D’Elia, who …
Larry the Cable Guy hasn’t exactly stepped away from the limelight, but he hadn’t put out a solo stand-up special in a decade before this spring, with Remain Seated coming out in April for rental or purchase via Comedy Dynamics. Has Larry the Cable Guy watched Nanette? I’m seriously curious. Hannah …
You’ll have to pay up if you want to stream his brand-new hour of stand-up, Sincerely Louis CK. He announced the offering, charging $7.99, via email on April 4, 2020. He alludes to the global pandemic without mentioning it explicitly in his email (and doesn’t touch it in his special, which he …
In ordinary times, I’d dismiss much of this stuff as all a bit too ordinary. But we’re decidedly not living through those times right now. Which means hearing Segura imagine death squads come for trivial slights, or later, hearing his mother try to convince him that “God is trying to …
Bert Kreischer is often hilariously out of step with the times, so having this party guy’s newest Netflix special show up just as America had stopped partying in March seemed apt. What I wrote then: For any personal failings he may cop to, Kreischer remains an engaging storyteller with a …
There’s an extra bittersweet poignancy already to Marc Maron’s 2020 Netflix special, End Times Fun, which came out in the second week of March, just as the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping across America. Lynn Shelton, his girlfriend at the time, directed this special, and died suddenly and unexpectedly (not from …
Taylor Tomlinson has an old-school stand-up comedy approach that belies her young age. It’s jarring to hear a twentysomething make jokes about kids these days, and yet, here we are. Tomlinson must’ve just made the generational cutoff of kids who got spanked by her parents, because she’s on the outside …
