Greer Barnes
He holds the room captive without ever raising his voice.
1 special · 2001
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Greer Barnes does not yell. He steps up to the microphone, stands still, and grins. His pace is so slow the audience has to lean in to catch the rhythm. He talks quietly, using his mouth to fill the room with noise. He acts out squirrels, bees, and subway encounters. He drops the exact sound of a passing police car or a bouncing basketball into a sentence, then lets three seconds of dead air pass while he watches the crowd catch up.
Specials
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Premium Blend: David Alan Grier (S5E1) with David Alan Grier, Eddie Gossling & 2 more
David Alan Grier hosts four comics doing tight television sets.
Comedy Central · 25 min
On stage
He is a permanent part of the Comedy Cellar. In an episode of Louie, Louis C.K. and Dave Attell stand in the back of the club, listen to the audience scream, and flatly refuse to go on next because following Barnes is impossible. He has anchored the New York scene for decades, commanding respect from his peers without chasing theater tours. He works entirely on his own strange clock.
When he does a bit, he commits to the physical space of the characters. He maps out conversations between insects or recreates a tourist getting lost, turning a simple premise into a live cartoon. He rarely uses a standard setup and punchline. He just stays inside the scene until the absurdity of what he is doing gets the laugh.
He grew up in the Bronx and almost played professional baseball before an injury pushed him toward standup. When shows like Crashing or Horace and Pete need a seasoned New York club comic, they cast him.
At a glance
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