The Newsletter
A weekly dispatch on stand-up comedy specials — what's new, what's worth watching, and what's coming next.
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New specials, notable performances, and things worth watching.
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When Comedy Gets Too Comfortable
This week, we dissect the shifting landscape of comedy: from award-winning shaggy dog stories to raw creative processes and improvised family specials.
Fringe's Odd Rewards: Chaos and Radical Honesty
Translating unhinged clown shows to streaming, the burden of stage honesty, and the Fringe's broad definition of what actually works.
Kelsey Cook Sold Netflix a Finished Asset
Waiting for a green light means waiting forever. Comedians are shooting their own specials and treating platforms like acquisition markets.
Jeff Arcuri Puts the Crowd on Mute
In a baseball stadium, the physical body of the comedian is just a rumor in the distance. The business of standup has outgrown its buildings.
Jeff Arcuri Made the Algorithm Pay Out
The algorithm demands sixty seconds of crowd work, but Netflix still demands a full hour of comedy.
Deniz Göktaş Itemized His Underwear For The State
A Turkish comedian goes viral, gets investigated by the government, and issues a statement itemizing his packed underwear.
Ricky Gervais Sold His Silence
Cancel culture is a highly lucrative business model if you know how to sell your own suppression to a major streaming platform.
Kevin Hart Industrializes the Open Mic
Netflix is attempting to optimize the highly inefficient market of standup comedy with reality television mechanics.
CBS Swaps Stephen Colbert for Cheap Syndication
CBS has replaced Stephen Colbert with a twenty-year-old panel show to save forty million dollars, proving the spreadsheet has defeated the monologue.
Morgan Jay Tries to Autotune Wembley
Morgan Jay just announced a massive UK arena tour, raising the question of how you autotune fifteen thousand British people at once.
The Roast of Kevin Hart Was a Culture War Pit Fight
Being a harmless, sponsor-friendly celebrity is a great way to make a hundred million dollars, until Netflix hires Shane Gillis to host your roast.
Nate Bargatze Fills the Intuit Dome
The industry has taken the most intimate art form and placed it inside an airplane hangar to see what happens to the punchlines.