Review Of 8 Best Stand-Up Comedy Specials
Mar 23
Stand-up comedy specials have been around for a long time and there are many to choose from. Below are reviews of eight of the best stand-up comedy specials you will ever see. Watch them in any order you like.
Top 8 Comedy Specials To Check Out
Eddie Murphy, Delirious
Most memorable moment: Eddie Murphy in tight red leather pants and matching big ’80s red leather jacket, shaking his rear end at the audience as he does his best impression of his younger self, taunting the other kids with no ice cream. Delirious is Eddie Murphy’s classic HBO special. Many have seen it a dozen times and will watch it a dozen times more.
Jen Kirkman, I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine)
“I am 40, divorced, I am gonna die alone. Someone is going to find me dead in the bathtub and a cat has eaten half my face. I don’t have a cat…” Jen Kirkman is stark, visually graphic and real. Kirkman is famous for observational comedy and her digs on dating, relationships, and divorce. Her 2015 Netflix special, I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine) takes a poignant and hilarious look at weddings, marriage, and divorce.
Craig Ferguson, I’m Here to Help
Former Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson shows off his class in style with humor your 5-year-old would understand – he poops out Leprechauns for a full minute on stage. This won him a Grammy in 2014. His 2013 I’m Here to Help premiered on Netflix and gives us the 53-year-old comic at his best. It is full of offbeat Scottish wit adjusted for the American mind, which means even you will get it!
Jimmy Carr, Funny Business
British comic Jimmy Carr comes on stage in London in a designer suit and, in a very posh accent, proceeds to tell some of the most offensive and hysterical jokes you will ever steal. Carr gained popularity in the U.S. in 2004, on the Comedy Central game show Distraction. You will enjoy (and cringe) at his jokes on rectal thermometers, burning tampons and much worse.
Ali Wong, Baby Cobra
“There was this awesome comedian and she came on stage in a tight cobra dress and, ha ha, you’re gonna love this – she was pregnant,” said nobody ever. That is, before Ali Wong. After watching Baby Cobra you will appreciate this 34-year-old, fearless funny girl. Listen to her baby wipe stories and you will find out all you ever wanted to about the snail trail (no, sorry, no hints). You will laugh so hard, it will be difficult to sit through this without a diaper.
Mike Birbiglia, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
You may recognize Mike Birbiglia from Trainwreck and other movies, and he also writes and directs his own full-length projects. Birbiglia is a smart comic – not to say his humor is off-base or highbrow, just the opposite. The 2013 special My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend is a wild ride of completely self-effacing sincerity to literal leaps into crazy onstage antics.
Louis C.K., Live at the Beacon Theater
Last January, comedian Louis C.K. released a new show on his website. Horace and Pete is very good, but the biggest surprise was his risky distribution method. This one-of-a-kind maverick takes digs at whatever doesn’t suit him in the 2011 Live at the Beacon Theater.
Patton Oswalt, Talking for Clapping
Patton Oswalt will be a favorite if you like Trump jokes, but that isn’t all he has in store for you in his special, Talking for Clapping. The comic, actor and writer excels in rants about joke-stealing and fraternity chants, which he gives a hilarious rendition of.
Pick a weekend and binge watch some of these stand-up comedy specials.
