The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Maria Bamford’s new special for 2020 came out everywhere for rental or purchase. As I wrote back in January: Over the end credits, Bamford interviews her parents about their “caring and sharing” routine — apparently she had more interviews with other subjects of her jokes, but scrapped that as a …
Vir Das almost broke through in a broadcast primetime sitcom in America this year, starring in a backdoor pilot spinoff episode of Fresh Off The Boat on ABC. ABC executives said this year they weren’t ready to move forward with his spinoff, but in the meantime, Das is showing off …
What I wrote when Fortune Feimster’s Netflix special dropped in January: The hour is full of memorable anecdotes, as she recounts her slow evolution from tomboy to out lesbian, and how she skipped the closeted part by not understanding her sexuality until her mid-20s. Which makes her act-outs even funnier …
Back when he made an original docuseries for Netflix in 2013, Russell Peters Vs. The World, Peters talked in one of the episodes about how he believed happier comedians made for bad comedy. “What the hell are we so happy about? We’re not here to spread joy. We’re spreading joy through …
Rob Delaney provided an early example of how comedians could become big stars thanks solely to Twitter. But it wasn’t until Delaney left America for Britain that he found success on the telly, thanks to Catastrophe. That brilliant comedy starring Delaney and Sharon Horgan aired for four six-episode seasons on …
Leslie Jones debuted her first Netflix comedy special this January, fresh off a five-year run on Saturday Night Live. And Jones let us know that the spirit of the late Sam Kinison lives on through her, engaging audience members at full volume, and reminding us that when she was in …
Jayde Adams began her career in drag bars in Britain with an uncanny Adele impersonation. Her comedy career has gone big across the pond since her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2016, and now she joins a group of Brits with specials on Amazon Prime. As I wrote previously: Why so …
Ronny Chieng’s Netflix special gets better with age. Take this already great bit about Amazon Prime and how it encapsulates America, and remember, he wrote and performed this pre-pandemic. As I wrote back in December: Chieng delivers a brilliant analogy early on in his hour, observing how the Internet is …
“It seems like, over the past couple of years, we’ve developed this amazing ability to get mad at anyone for any reason.” That’s how Michelle Wolf opens her HBO special. Wolf would know. Last the nation saw her all at once, she was tearing up the White House Correspondents Dinner …
As I wrote in Decider when Dan Soder’s HBO special debuted: Born in 1983, Soder lands right in the middle of Venn diagram between Generation X and Millennials, which places him in the sweetest spot for both cynicism and self-confidence. It also means he grew up along with the Web. …
