Robert Fones

He came up in the Minneapolis alt-comedy scene of the 2010s, building shows in the DIY spaces of the city. He co-produced Boy Kisses, a weekly showcase run out of a local board game shop, operating in an ecosystem where standup and indie music shared the same bills,. He treats his comedy like an underground music project, a connection he made literal with his 2016 release Feel Real Fear, a split EP shared with an indie band.

A typical bit strips the emotion out of a situation and replaces it with basic math. He will argue that spending fifty dollars on energy drinks is functionally identical to doing cocaine, working through the pricing until the crowd has to concede the point. The logic is bulletproof. He wrote his first joke by swapping the lyrics of a rap anthem for a flat explanation of gender as a social construct, and that same factual delivery shapes his act. He points his irritation at things that cannot defend themselves, looking at the audience to calmly inform them that their pet ferrets will inevitably die alone at a gas station.