Pete Holmes

Pete Holmes is a tall, loud man who is constantly delighted by his own thoughts. He rarely walks through a bit in a straight line. He prefers to make an observation, crack himself up, step away from the mic stand while folding over in laughter, and then lean back in to over-explain why the premise works. He adopts a high, squeaky register to mock his own anxiety, then drops into a booming broadcaster voice to deliver the punchline.

He occupies a specific space in the Los Angeles comedy ecosystem as a deeply therapized over-sharer. Because he has hosted the interview podcast You Made It Weird since 2011, much of his audience arrives at theaters already familiar with his neuroses and his spiritual habits. His crowds treat his shows like a long-running conversation, showing up ready to listen to him work out his latest psychological hurdle.

The material swings between cosmic spirituality and absolute minutiae. In one breath, he will parse the teachings of Ram Dass. In the next, he will spend five minutes screaming about the humiliation of being asked to take your shoes off in someone else’s house. He is at his best when he lets his wholesome, youth-pastor persona slip, deploying a surprisingly filthy tangent just to watch the room react. His weaker moments arrive when the self-analysis overtakes the joke, turning a routine into an earnest monologue.

Raised as an evangelical Christian before losing his religion and his marriage in his twenties, he uses his standup to continuously rebuild his worldview out loud.