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Have you ever decided to sit and watch something, then you sit there endlessly scrolling through 4 different streaming services and every comedy looks unfunny, every reality show meaningless, every series too long to invest in, every foreign film too artsy, every awards season film boring and every Greatest Series Ever You Have To Watch It too, well, when I finally sit down to watch Mad Men I really want it to pay attention. OK, well now it’s time for bed, I’ll watch something tomorrow. It is a now universal experience.
There is also be a positive side of this new accessible world we live in. What if you are a comedy fan, specifically, stand up comedy. Well on Netflix and HBO Max you can watch days worth of comedy specials by living legends. Then hop onto TikTok and Instagram Reels to discover hours of jokes by the next generation of comedians who will be playing theatres and arenas in less than a decade. Then you can pop onto Spotify and listen to all the classic comedy albums by the dead greats like Mitch Hedberg or Bill Hicks. Then go to YouTube and watch 10 hours of Norm McDonald’s tv appearances (10 hours well spent). Then as you sit slumped over exhausted by the ravenous consumption of genius jokes and unique perspectives that have changed the way we view the world, I pop around the corner like a living breathing Google and say
‘If you like those things you should check out my favourite comedy album of all time on Bandcamp!’
And you reply ‘Who the fuck listens to comedy on Bandcamp.’
I have been texting a link to a google drive folder to a friend every 2 months for the past 2 years. In that folder sits a pirated download of a comedy show recorded in 2008 by my favourite comedian. My friend said he keeps forgetting to listen but assures me that he will get to it. Until 2 months go by and I have remind him via text once again.
‘it’s my favourite piece of comedy I have ever heard, believe me when I say…you. will. love. it.’
We regularly trade recommendations for music, films, books and we attend concerts together, I trust his taste and he trusts mine. I know he has the time. He told me that Delta just let him know that he was among the top 1 percent of fliers in last year. That is countless hours on a plane or in an airport. And I can see from his posts on Instagram that he is regularly recommending audiobooks and albums he loves. So why hasn’t he dug into into this ‘supposed’ masterpiece of humour, easy…who the fuck listens to comedy on Google Drive.
This comedian has 8 albums on Bandcamp, each you can buy, 3 filmed specials on Vimeo you can rent for 48 hours, a zoom special from the pandemic is not listed anywhere but you can find it if you google it correctly. And he has a Christmas show on his website that you can only access through a link in his email list or if you know the precise web address to type into the www dot part of the internet browser. In the description of that Christmas show he writes:
I know some of you might be irritated by the interface but, i don’t want it to be “out there” I just want it “in here.”
His most recent comedy special is a 2 hour storytelling show that is equal parts love story and science fiction. It was only released on cd, cassette tape and vinyl. I purchased it on vinyl and it came with impeccable packaging, 2 records and a personal note from the comedian.
The last time I saw him live was in the fall of 2019 at St. Ann’s Warehouse, a theatre in Brooklyn. For my birthday I purchased 24 tickets for me and most of my friends. The gift was simple, Venmo me for your ticket because I can’t afford to pay for all these plus hell it’s my birthday, come see this comedian with me, we get drinks after.
After the show, over drinks, we all talked about how many people, between 10 and 15, got up and walked out of the theatre. Certainly more than I had ever seen at a play or a comedy show. Sometimes this comedian would talk to the person as they left, not heckling or badgering the audience member just checking on them. If anything, encouraging them to enjoy their evening. A farewell relieving them of any guilt of the fact that, he just may not be their thing.
I counted the votes of my friends after the show.
18 (75%) - Genius unlike anything they had ever seen.
3 (12.5%) - Never seen anything like it but not their thing.
2 (8.5%) - What was that about? I didn’t get it. Happy Birthday let’s get drunk
1 (4%) My vote. Still a fan. And happy to have 23 friends that would take an evening away from their Apple TV to check out something weird. And that they reimbursed me for their tickets.
I do not think this comedian is the cure to those evenings of scrolling for a film or a series. He may not be your thing but I do think that there is wisdom in one of the lines from his most recent show. It is a show that I had to listen to on my friends record player, because I don’t have one and once I received the records I realised I had to figure out how to actually listen to the performance that was found within the grooves of the vinyl. He says…
‘Why didn’t I make a download? Well that would be like putting a lift on the side of a mountain.’
We have such easy access to all this stuff now, people say content when referring to video and film and television but I prefer stuff. Because in my life I have a lot of stuff and some of it is trash I have yet to throw away (a quesadilla maker my mom gave me I knew I would never use and I never have but it was nice she thought of me) and some of my stuff are my most cherished possessions (a guitar my dad built me by hand modelled after Johnny Greenwoods classic dark sunburst telecaster). There is all this STUFF to watch, trash and transcendent each a click away. And it’s not the stuff that is making us bored but the fact that we are taking the lift, rather than walking up the mountain.
If you find yourself in the scroll hole, think about the exact thing you want to watch or read or listen to and do that. Maybe it’ll cost you 4.99 to rent and how wild is it that even that level of investment can be considered a mountain these days. Hell make it 19.99 to rent…invite a friend over, pop some popcorn and have them Venmo you 10 bucks. You don’t even have to love what you watch in fact maybe you will despise it but then you can have that night when you watched that one movie you both despised. That is your little club now, an intimate 2 person club that is solely based around the one time you both hated a movie. That is still better than the scroll hole.
The little club of people who think this comedian is really great is not that big because it’s hard to find. And someone has to let you know it exists. For those of you that solely rely on streaming algorithms I can’t help you. But maybe you’ve been bored of a lot of stuff out there lately well here is some stuff that I think is really good stuff. And for those of you who rely on institutional validation the New York Times just said this comedian is ‘in contention for the greatest working comedian’ and one of Britain’s most revered comedians said ‘few serious fans of the form will deny he is the worlds greatest living stand up.’ And if you don’t know where to start. Here are my recommendations, click the links to check them out.
Favourite Album $5 - An audio recording of a show he did in 2008. It is about the sadness and cruelty of the world and battle between engaging with that reality and falling into complacency.
Great Album $5 - An audio recording of a show he did in 2007. I remember listening to it on a run during the pandemic and I cried when he talked about telling your parents you love them.
A Christmas Show Free - A show about a Christmas road trip with a girl and an old man. It’s January but if it snows. Go on a walk and listen to this or wait til next December.
Great Special $4 to rent - A video recording of a story about a man from the day he was born until he dies and a woman who’s life is told backwards from the day she dies until she is born. And all the tiny moments that make up a life. My uncle rented it a few times, he died in November it was one of his favourites.
The Moral of the Story: The night I listened to that vinyl album by the comedian I’m talking about. I bought some orange wine I’ve been wanting to try, lit a candle and put my phone on airplane mode and continued my walk up the mountain that began when I ordered the album 1 year earlier. It was delayed due to the supply chain. It was only after the show had finished I realised how much more memorable this night would be than a night of endlessly scrolling while sitting on a lift.