One great benefit of stand-up comedy is that it affords practitioners an avenue to deal with their own shortcomings.
Today’s Stand-Up spotlight highlights two such examples.
In the first John Mulaney discusses how he turned his addiction into a source for material, and why he so easily identified with the recently deceased Matthew Perry. The second story tells of Tifffany Haddish turning her DUI arrest into on-stage material one night later.
The final two stories offer comedians Matt Rife, Tom Segura, Marlon Wayans and Chris Tucker discussing how far to push potentially offensive jokes in our current era of sensitivity.
Learn to find the funny.
STAND-UP SPOTLIGHT – November 30, 2023
John Mulaney on Turning Addiction Into Comedy and Why He ‘Identified’ With Matthew Perry’s Journey
Only a comedic mind like John Mulaney’s could mine gold from one of the lowest points of his life. The comic released his third Netflix special, “Baby J,” in April. In stark relief to his previous, more ebullient hours, his latest work examined his 2020 drug relapse and the intervention that led to a successful stint in rehab.
“Going to rehab and a lot of other things had become public knowledge, and I felt there was no way to start doing stand-up again without going through this,” he tells Variety now. “I also had a lot to say about it. It had been an extremely eventful time, and the goal from the beginning was to do this as funny as I could make it — not as impactful as I could make it, not to pause for dramatic effect. I just wanted it to be a little wilder and put you in my very confident, demented brain during the time of addiction.”
Tiffany Haddish jokes about DUI at stand-up show — less than a day after arrest
Tiffany Haddish made a joke out of her DUI arrest less than 24 hours after being booked by police in Beverly Hills.
“I prayed to God to send me a man with a job, preferably in a uniform,” Haddish said Friday at the Laugh Factory in Long Beach, Calif., per audio obtained by TMZ.
“God answered my prayers.”
Matt Rife, Sam Jay, Tom Segura and Marlon Wayans Discuss the State of Stand-Up Comedy: ‘You Can’t Be Afraid to Offend’
According to Marlon Wayans, the number one rule in comedy is “You can’t be afraid to offend.”
Four of today’s hottest comics came together for Variety’s stand-up comedy roundtable — Marlon Wayans (“God Loves Me”), Tom Segura (“Sledgehammer”), (“Salute Me or Shoot Me”) and Matt Rife (“Natural Selection”) — to discuss the state of comedy.
Chris Tucker on keeping his show ‘edgy’ amid cancel culture: ‘I don’t need to go too far’
Chris Tucker is not letting the threat of cancel culture stop him from putting on a great show.
In an exclusive interview with Page Six Monday, the “Rush Hour” star — who is currently headlining The Legend Tour, his first major tour in North America since 2011 — said that he just wants the audience to laugh and have fun, despite his stand-up comedy show being “edgy.”
