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Netflix is changing the way we watch comedy specials, and the comics are doing their part, too.
The solution, for many, is to experiment with the form.
Thats not to say stand-ups havent deviated from the same tried and over-tested formula in the past.
If you go back a few years, outliers start to pop up.
But now, in 2018, were witnessing real momentum in the genre.
So much so that Hannah GadsbysNanetteand Drew Michaelsaudience-less HBO hourare challenging what we consider the medium to even be.
Female artists often defy genre.
(2016)Some stand-ups never return once Hollywood comes knocking on the greenroom door.
Similarly,Laugh at My Painopens with a 15-minute tongue-in-cheek doc and closes with a 20-minute bank heist sequence.
Say what you will about Harts material, but the presentation attempts something fresh and cinematic.
In theory, comics use TV exposure to exhibit their greatest strengths.Live at the Fillmoreis no different.
Schaal returns a few minutes later, jokes that whats in right now is autobiographical humor like Louis C.K.
or Michael Richards, and is then heckled by a little girl in the crowd.
Sometimes theyre drunk loudmouths, or hopefully theyre amateur musicians with a thick skin.
Even better is Barry in cars and temporary accommodation, explaining the minutiae of a touring comic.
Come for the off-the-cuff jokes, stay for tips on surviving hotel bathrooms.
And thats just the prologue.
It takes me out every single time … so I wanted to play with that.
Even the dogs in the theater stalls seem to appreciate the subversion on display.
Or as I like to call it: music.
Even without pretending to be failures, the singing duo punctuate their show with other fun distractions.
(Im trying to immortalize something Ive worked on for a long time, he tells a heckler.)
Though he physically adjusts his body for each voice, it still feels like one complete, thought-out package.
But play like its 80.
That Glass has a backing group at all is indicative of his shows chaotic atmosphere.
More impressively, the 75 audience members are in on the joke, too, chanting Fuck Rory Scovel!
on cue to a faux-shocked Glass.
Switching instruments at a rapid tempo, thePortlandiastar is practically a prop comic just with cymbals instead of watermelons.
The crowd cant help but nod and stroke their chin in appreciation.
James Acaster:Repertoire(2018)Repertoireis a stand-up special designed for binge-watching.
you stop after four episodes), and it rewards viewers with an overwhelming number of callbacks.
In other words, this is very much a one-woman show.
Its powerful enough that even a Netflix viewer can sense the rooms collective discomfort.
Stewart Lee:Content Provider(2018)Not everyone gets a Netflix special.
On season two it was Armando Iannucci, then Chris Morris for season three and four.
ForContent Provider,its graphic novelist Alan Moore, who takes on bullying duties.
Youre in the worst physical condition of your life, Moore informs Lee during a cutaway.
Its going to kill you.
Netflixs loss is the BBCs gain.
As a new layer,The Overthinkeris crammed with post-production gags aimed squarely at home viewers.
Maybe Ill do some drawings.
Of course, what complements Martins brand of humor may not suit, say, Marc Maron.
Thats the boundary-pushing premise for Michaels new HBO special, an hour-long show performed in front of zero people.
Watch the trailer on mute and it may as well be a Michel Gondry music video.
I dont even know if youd call this a stand-up special, Carmichael laughs in a behind-the-scenes preview.
If sitcoms can thrive without a studio audience, can live comedy follow suit?
