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Caleb Synan · 2022 · Comedy Central
A southern preacher's kid faces down his thirties with edible-induced panic.
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Caleb Synan leans heavily into self-deprecation and millennial anxiety, turning the milestone of his third decade into an exercise in quiet panic. The high point of his performance is a highly detailed, agonizingly slow-motion breakdown of the time he accidentally drank a weed soda. Having absolutely no understanding of milligram dosages, he spent eleven hours in an internal crisis on his couch, paralyzed next to his cat and terrified that standing up too quickly would somehow alert the local police.
The half-hour set was recorded at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn in September 2021 and released by Comedy Central in April 2022. For Synan, a Georgia-born preacher’s kid who spent years developing his low-key, conversational cadence in the Atlanta scene, the taping marked a major career step after the career freeze of the pandemic.
Rather than relying on high-energy theatrics, he keeps the crowd engaged through dry pacing and everyday absurdities. He spends the rest of his time on stage mocking his own generation’s cringe-worthy traits, declaring his dislike for 22-year-old country musicians, and questioning the actual legitimacy of the British accent.