Secret Time
Netflix · 2018 · 57 min
A shirtless comic brings his loudest family confessions to Philadelphia.
Bert Kreischer walked onto the stage of Philadelphia’s Trocadero Theatre, immediately shed his shirt, and spent nearly an hour trying to prove his hard-partying brand of comedy could survive the transition into family life. Filmed in early 2018, this was his debut Netflix original, catching him at a pivotal career moment as he graduated from a cult-favorite storyteller to a major streaming headliner.
Rather than relying entirely on wild fraternity-style antics, he shifts focus heavily to domestic life. His family takes the brunt of the roasting, featuring bits about his daughter practicing softball with an imaginary ball, an awkward family zip-lining excursion, and childhood memories of upstaging ex-NBA player Ralph Sampson at a basketball camp. He structures the hour strategically, burying his strongest road closer midway through the set to keep viewers hooked — a trick he later claimed gave him one of the highest audience retention rates on the platform.
While the set features plenty of his characteristic high-energy screaming and physical performance, it also represents a shift toward more graphic, borderline uncomfortable domestic confessions. The hour was well received by fans, establishing him as a comic who could transition into fatherhood jokes without losing the uninhibited edge that made him famous.
The set list
-
Zip-lining with his family
Details personal vulnerabilities and dynamics with his family during an outdoor excursion.
-
Practicing softball with an imaginary ball
Roasts his daughter Ila's unique way of thinking after watching her try to catch an imaginary softball.
-
Upstaging NBA star Ralph Sampson at basketball camp
Recounts attending an elite summer basketball camp as a 13-year-old and unexpectedly showing up the basketball giant.
-
Interactions with his Amazon Echo
Details an inappropriate, problematically explicit relationship with the Alexa smart speaker device.
-
The Machine story encore
Teases his signature viral routine about getting involved with the Russian mafia during a college train robbery.
How it plays
- Tone
- Raunchy, filthy, goofy, candid, and affectionate.
- On stage
- Shirtless, hard-drinking 'affable oaf' and self-aware frat dad; described as the 'Captain Caveman of comedy' and an honest, vulnerable storyteller.
- Pace
- High-energy and raucous; removes shirt immediately, pauses to drink to audience cheers, and mixes sprawling narrative yarns with self-mocking chuckles.
- About
- parenting and family life, marriage and sexual misadventures, personal health and reckless decisions, childhood memories
What the critics said
Received mixed-to-positive appraisals; critics and reviewers found Kreischer charismatic and at his best delivering grounded, relatable stories about fatherhood, though some felt his party-school antics and racial humor were dated or obnoxious.
In the room: Raucous, excited crowd that roared when he discarded his shirt and drank onstage.
Backstory
Known for two decades as the hard-partying inspiration for 'National Lampoon's Van Wilder' following a 1997 Rolling Stone profile, Kreischer balances his party-boy reputation with middle age, marriage, and fatherhood.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia
- Runtime
- 57 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- Todd Biermann
- Topics
- Before
- The Machine (2016)
- After
- Hey Big Boy (2020)
More from Bert Kreischer
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Lucky
Netflix
-
Razzle Dazzle
Netflix
-
Hey Big Boy
Netflix
-
The Machine
Showtime
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