Best Time of Our Lives

Adam Devine brings the same loud, manic, physical energy that defined his run on Workaholics to his first Netflix stand-up special. He doesn’t just walk out from the wings; he enters through the main lobby of the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, high-fiving fans along the way. Once on stage, Devine relies heavily on elastic facial expressions, silly vocal sound effects, and physical act-outs to punch up his material about growing up, getting older, and living in Hollywood. It’s a performance-first hour that prioritizes goofy charm over structured joke-writing.

Filmed in 2019, the 58-minute set captures Devine at a point when he was trying to re-establish his stand-up credentials after years spent writing and starring in Workaholics. The highlight of the special is his self-deprecating story about his Pitch Perfect audition. As a self-admitted stoner, he only read the subject line of the email and showed up to the casting office in full baseball pants, doing stretches in the parking lot under the impression he was reading for a sports film. Other bits focus on his fear of teenagers, his hatred of the names Chad and Derek, and a running gag where he mutters “stupid” to himself after his own punchlines.

Critics and audiences were split on the special. Some reviewers noted that while Devine’s frantic pace and rubber-faced delivery carry the show, the actual material can feel disjointed and thin, occasionally relying on loud noises and mugging to fill the space where a punchline should be. Others found the goofy, high-octane stage presence a welcome transition for an actor best known for television work.