I watch a lot of standup comedy. In a month I will probably check out over fifty new comics. In the last year or two I have become something of a student of the art form.
Of all the comics I’ve checked out, and of all the comics I really, really like and enjoy—in no particular order: Rory Scoval, Sam Morril, Maria Bamford, Aaron Weber, Dusty Slay, Ali Siddiq, Kathleen Madigan, John Mulaney, Marc Maron, Judah Friedlander, Jen Kirkman, Nate Bargatze, Jordan Jensen, Hasan Minhaj, Sheng Wang, Neal Brennan, Kevin Hart, Tig Notaro, Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa, Jimmy O. Yang, Kyle Kinane, Chad Daniels, to name a few—the comic who makes me laugh the hardest and the most is Joe List.
Joe List is either a genius or a knucklehead who’s not very good at standup. In either case, he’s hilarious.
A comic’s worst nightmare is to bomb: you go out there, you hear crickets, the audience is rolling their eyes, your jokes aren’t landing—as they say in the industry, you eat s***. Joe List, on the other hand, has turned bombing into an art form. Best I can tell, he’s doing it on purpose. And then he makes fun of himself, reprimands the audience, it’s too much.
Check out this performance, and decide for yourself.
