A Breath of Fresh Air

Nick Di Paolo has never made an effort to endear himself to the mainstream, and this self-released hour doubles down on the combative, right-leaning persona that has defined his late-career comedy. He recorded the set in front of a receptive crowd at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, New York, opting to bypass conventional networks and upload the final cut directly to YouTube for free. The move came shortly after his 2018 firing from SiriusXM over an offensive tweet, a pivot that pushed him fully into the independent podcasting space where his brand of unfiltered social commentary thrives.

The material takes aim at a familiar slate of modern cultural grievances, with routines targeting the #MeToo movement, ‘toxic’ masculinity, and what he views as the excesses of political correctness. His best bits, however, focus on more trivial irritations, including an extended rant about the environmental guilt-tripping at ‘green’ hotels and the strange etiquette of modern wakes. It is a set built entirely on grievance, delivered with the aggressive, New England cynicism of a comic who is happy to work outside the industry gates.