The Definitive Guide to Comedy
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 …
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 …
Pete Davidson has become both a star and a caricature on Saturday Night Live, which is a shame because there’s a lot going on below the surface for Davidson. He gets to showcase that now in movies, including the semi-autobiographical King of Staten Island he stars in on the big-screen …
Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster co-host a radio show for Netflix’s SiriusXM radio channel, so not long after Feimster’s Netflix special aired, here came Papa in February. Telling us we’re doing great in February is one thing. Reminding us in July? Are we doing great, still? What I wrote in …
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 …
