Besser Breaks the Record

UCB co-founder Matt Besser treats his first solo comedy special less like a standard stand-up set and more like a carefully organized variety riot. Recorded live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood, the show abandons standard observational routines in favor of musical backup bands, character bits, and an escalating series of stunts designed to let Besser smash obscure comedy world records. Much of the material pulls from Besser’s stage catalog, including his recurring reading of unhinged, real-life Letters to the Editor, which he delivers with the theatrical intensity of a punk frontman. He runs through his own customized Ten Commandments, clashes with a group of crossword puzzle enthusiasts in the crowd, and brings out his fictional rival, a grim Soviet alternative comedian named Ivan Krushnev Jr. The special debuted in January 2016 as a launch-day original for NBC’s short-lived streaming platform, Seeso, capturing Besser at a point when his weekly Earwolf podcast improv4humans was establishing its signature loose, character-driven energy.