Michael Showalter
An alt-comedy founder who treats a set like a weird, quiet prank.
1 special · 2004
Get an email when there's a new special. You'll need a Google account.
Michael Showalter treats standup like an assignment he forgot to prepare for, but is confidently winging anyway. He paces the stage with a loose, distracted energy, ignoring the standard setup-and-punch rhythm. Instead of telling a clean joke, he might read an angsty poem he wrote in high school, debate the mathematics of sandwich-making, or threaten to just play a Hall & Oates song on his laptop. He leans into the quiet when a premise confuses the room, letting the awkwardness stretch until it becomes the point of the bit.
Specials
-
Comedy Central Presents: Stella with Michael Ian Black & David Wain
Three men in matching suits perform highly synchronized nonsense.
Comedy Central · 21 min
On stage
As a founder of The State and Stella, he helped build the deadpan, absurd sensibility that defined downtown New York comedy in the late nineties. He spends most of his time directing major movies like The Big Sick, making his rare stage appearances feel like an excuse to mess around without a script. Even as he works mostly behind the camera, a large number of alternative comics still copy the weird, halting rhythm he helped popularize.
His stage work relies on holding onto an odd persona rather than writing tight material. His 2007 album Sandwiches & Cats feels like a strange spoken-word record, swapping traditional jokes for acoustic songs and pessimistic complaints. He is funniest when playing a slightly arrogant but pathetic version of himself, turning minor grievances into drawn-out, illogical arguments. The risk of this approach is that when a premise doesn’t connect, it just sounds like an unprepared guy talking to a quiet room. He demands patience, and he often prefers a confused chuckle to a clean laugh.
At a glance
- Topics