DELRAY BEACH – The nightmare is so common that it’s been portrayed in many a sitcom plot.
The actor’s at work when realizing he or she forgot to put on clothes. Usually the gag ends with the naked person waking up, realizing it was just a dream.
We’ll there’s a show in New York that makes the nightmare a reality, and that story leads today’s Stand-Up Spotlight. Comics perform their stand-up comedy routine completely nude.
The show’s mere existence begs two questions. To the comics: Could you perform your set nude? (In Steve Lamm’s case, he’d have to lose the banjolele.) To comedy fans: Would you be interested in seeing comedians perform naked. Keep in mind, there’s no quality control.
A third potential question: Which South Florida comedian would you like to see perform nude? But that’s a question for another time.
Today’s Spotlight also includes stories about the backlash Chinese comedians are still experience following that $2 million joke gone wrong highlighted last week. There’s also a Bert Kreischer feature that coincides with the release of his new movie, and previews of upcoming specials from Tom Segura and Wanda Sykes.
Get the funny rolling, folks.
STAND-UP SPOTLIGHT – May 25, 2023
Naked stand-up comedy: Everything you imagine, and more
For as long as she can remember, stand-up comic Carolyn Bergier has had a recurring nightmare in which she’s onstage, partly nude. It’s scary, and then she wakes up.
The difference this time is that she is entirely naked – and this is no dream. It’s real life, or at least as close as you can get in a Bushwick, Brooklyn, basement. Last month, Bergier, the kind of person who changes in the locker room as quickly and discreetly as possible, walked onstage with no clothes on, looked out at a sold-out crowd of 75 people, a red neon sign behind them showing two rabbits having sex, and realized she had made a big mistake: She forgot to take the hair tie off her wrist.
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No joke: China’s backlash against stand-up stirs fear of comedy clampdown
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, May 20 (Reuters) – One joke by a Chinese comedian about the nation’s military has spurred online uproar, a $2 million fine, a police probe, a sweep of cancelled shows and fears for the survival of Chinese stand-up comedy, a rare refuge for somewhat free speech.
The furore over Li Haoshi’s wisecrack in Beijing last weekend marks the biggest scandal yet for a form of entertainment that, despite China’s tightening censorship regime, had managed to gain popularity with performances in small groups and material that managed to just toe the line.
The story behind the true-life train robbery that got Bert Kreischer his first film close-up in ‘The Machine’
Machines — just like good comedians — aren’t born, they’re built. Bert Kreischer happens to be both, but it took some time.
Long after his days as a legendary hard-partying super senior at Florida State University, Kreischer’s experience finding his voice in stand-up didn’t really start until he learned to become a great storyteller, unveiling the truth like he strips himself of his shirt on stage — in a hysterical, honest way — with a few embellishments, of course. It’s fitting that the bit that finally helped him click things into place was a story he started telling from his college frat boy days about robbing his classmates on a train in Russia during a class trip — with help from the Russian mafia.
Tom Segura on His Gummy-Guzzling Mom, “Universally Loathed” Ted Cruz and His New Netflix Special
Tom Segura is back in the spotlight. The comic and prolific podcaster is readying his fifth Netflix stand-up special. This one, titled Tom Segura: Sledgehammer, will roll out globally July 4.
The Ryan Polito-directed hour, which he filmed before a sold-out crowd at Phoenix’s Celebrity Theater, focuses largely on Segura’s comedian wife, their two young sons, his now widowed mom, who’s been sharing his gummies to hilarious results and…Brad Pitt. It is the first in a two-special deal that Segura inked with the streaming service in 2022.
‘Only God can say – That’s enough’: Wanda Sykes, the uncancellable standup superstar
About halfway through her new Netflix special, Wanda Sykes squats down and mimes pulling a tampon out from between her legs. To the noisy delight of her sold-out live audience, she swings the imaginary sanitary product round her head like a lasso. It’s not just an anarchic attempt to sum up the kind of bad behaviour that goes on in public toilets – it’s also a takedown of transphobic moral panic. After all, these spaces that people are freaking out about admitting trans women to – they’re not exactly the most pleasant places in the world. “I welcome my trans sisters into the ladies’ room,” she shrugs to the crowd. “Maybe you’ll make us do better, y’know?”
