Circus Purpose

Arvin Mitchell builds his standout bit around English-dubbed kung fu movies, letting his mouth keep flapping long after the audio track cuts off. It is the type of gag that relies entirely on muscle control and rubbery facial expressions, and Mitchell commits to it by holding frozen, wide-eyed stares until the silence turns awkward.

He treats stand-up less like joke delivery and more like a live cartoon.

Stories about chaperoning his young nieces and nephews to a Snoop Dogg concert or getting turned around on Los Angeles public transit serve primarily as launching pads for sound effects and kinetic pantomime.

Circus Purpose was recorded at the Dry Bar Comedy club in Provo, Utah, running roughly 43 minutes. By the time it was released in 2018, Mitchell was a seasoned club veteran, having co-hosted BET’s Club Comic View and appeared on Kevin Hart’s One Mic Stand before later joining the cast of the sketch series Studio C.

The set stays strictly clean, drawing heavily on his upbringing in St. Louis as one of thirteen children where fighting for attention was mandatory.