One of the side effects of the pandemic is that people have been spending a lot more time online. That can have its downsides, but there are also positive outcomes to this shift. The entertainment industry, for instance, has taken the opportunity to up its game and provide consumers with content that they can engage meaningfully with. Whether it’s music, television or online casino games, it has to be on-demand and preferably live. One specific genre where on-demand streaming content has really taken off is comedy specials. The pandemic is a topic that everyone can relate to, and the best stand-up comedians have really stepped up to the plate during the past year, as you’ll discover. Take a look at our pick of the best below.
Jim Gaffigan, Comedy Monster
One of the most all-round stand-up comics out there is Jim Gaffigan. He’s known for a brand of “clean comedy” that’s family-friendly and expletive-free. In his sixth special, Comedy Monster, delivered from a large theater in Minneapolis rather than the usual bare-brick New York comedy club, Gaffigan riffs through topics ranging from the state of the world to the personal humiliation of wearing sunblock. Once again, he shows that you don’t have to indulge in profanity to deliver comic relief that’s hilarious and edgy.
Gaffigan is also back on the live circuit. Catch him at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It’s a great venue where you can also eat at quality restaurants and play casino table games and slots. (What’s more, you can try out some of the available games in advance at Borgata Online, widely considered to be one of the best online casinos in the USA.)
Aziz Ansari, Nightclub Comedian
Aziz Ansari’s comedy special, Nightclub Comedian, is half an hour of stand-up comic genius recorded at New York’s famous underground club, Comedy Cellar, in December 2021. His appearance was totally unannounced, which is why his delivery seems so spontaneous and fresh. In the set, Ansari tries out some new material and finds ways to talk about the feelings people have about how the pandemic has crept into the corners of American life. He also offers insights into how to break out of the all-consuming media loop that people sometimes find themselves trapped in. Nightclub Comedian is an unpolished gem of comedy in the making.
Bo Burnham, Inside
In April last year, Bo Burnham switched from directing and acting in independent films back to his roots in stand-up comedy with Inside. Burnham drew on all his many talents for this comedy special. The star and director of his own film, he also wrote the script, composed the music, and edited the footage. Some say the results are more like performance art than stand-up, but most agree that Burnham’s bleakly hilarious comedy special is one of the most inventive ever seen.
Burnham uses his trademark humble humor and catchy tunes to deliver a series of powerful messages about some of the bigger problems of our times. These include cancel culture, depression, the “white savior complex,” toxic masculinity and inequality all around the world. It’s hard to believe that Burnham filmed Inside while he was completely alone at home, without a crew or audience. No wonder it won three 73rd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards: Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. Burnham also has an album release in the works and is planning a short theater run.
Tig Notaro, Drawn
Not all comedy has to be live. It does have to be lively, though. Tig Notaro’s Drawn is just that. It’s an animated special worked up from material that the stand-up comic, writer, radio contributor and actress has been working on for several years. A lot of the jokes come straight from Notaro’s life, her childhood and struggles with health in particular. What’s great about Drawn is that Notaro uses animation to make the stories stand out from one another. It’s not very different from today’s feature-rich online slots: Each story has its own distinct animation style, ranging from stop motion to jagged, color-saturated cartoons. The result is that the animations add a surreal dimension to Notaro’s content, providing a hilarious visual contrast to her dead-pan, dry-as-dust delivery. It’s refreshing stuff!
Jo Firestone, Good Timing
Another comedy special that really breaks the mold is Good Timing with Jo Firestone. Is it really stand-up comedy when hardly any of the material is performed on a stage and the comic does hardly any of the performance? Well, Firestone’s here to tell you that those questions aren’t important. In the same way that you don’t have to travel to a casino to play casino games (you can play live dealer games on your mobile), you don’t need to watch a hot-shot comedian to enjoy comedy. The stars of Good Timing are students from Firestone’s Zoom comedy class for seniors, in a filmed live workshop and performance that’s enthusiastic and hilarious. Where Firestone’s personal comedic talent comes through is in the conversations she has with her students, the way she instructs them, and the gently revealing questions that she asks. Good Timing shows that comedy can be for everyone.
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