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Brick Wall Comedy

Burning the Light

Quincy Jones

HBO · 2016 · 53 min

Dark club comedy recorded under a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Quincy Jones faces a crowd with a unique deadline looming over his head. Diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma in 2015 and given a year to live, the Los Angeles stand-up spent his remaining energy securing an HBO hour before his time ran out. What makes the set work is how little he relies on pity. He gets the elephant in the room out of the way immediately, joking about the high expectations for him to actually die and admitting that he has a chemotherapy session scheduled for the next morning. It is a set built on dark humor that manages to feel like a relaxed club gig rather than a solemn memorial.

Taped at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, the special was born from a viral Kickstarter campaign started by fellow comedians Nicole and Mickey Blaine. After Jones’s story caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, she championed his cause on her daytime talk show, ultimately helping him secure the deal with HBO. Prior to his diagnosis, the Seattle native was a relentless worker on the Southern California circuit, once logging an estimated 1,000 sets in a single year to sharpen his craft.

His material frequently moves past his health, covering gay marriage, race relations, and the modern dating market. In one of the hour’s best segments, he jokes about the awkwardness of trying to fill out an OkCupid profile while terminally ill, specifically when the site asks him to define “long-term”. Critics noted the rough edges of a set put together under extreme time constraints, but praised his ability to keep a heavy room feeling light.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Feeling pressure to die after blowing past the Kickstarter goal.

    Addresses the elephant in the room by joking that raising $50,000 created high expectations and pressure to produce a casket, refusing to be 'the Magic Johnson of cancer.'

  2. Mistakenly self-diagnosing with celiac disease via WebMD.

    Notes that lacking health insurance led him to self-diagnose gluten intolerance, finding an upside in his cancer diagnosis since he can eat gluten again.

  3. Comparing chemotherapy treatments to pregnancy.

    Contrasts his extreme mood swings and logic during monthly chemo bouts with the symptoms pregnant women experience.

  4. Examining audience Instagram habits and dating power dynamics.

    Works the front row to break down how Instagram is engineered for the adulation of attractive women and discusses the complications of dating while having a terminal prognosis.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Reflecting on whether he wants a cure for his cancer. closer

    Jokes that after meeting Ellen DeGeneres ('White Oprah') and receiving sudden career acclaim, they can keep the cure as long as he gets that 'Ellen money.'

How it plays

Tone
Darkly comedic, candid, defiant, and observational.
On stage
Candid, observational, and unapologetically honest, refusing to elicit pity or play the 'cancer card.'
Pace
Winded upon entering the stage and occasionally possessing a softer vocal delivery due to chemotherapy and illness, with occasional unpolished transitions between bits.
About
Terminal cancer diagnosis and mortality, Chemotherapy and health, Dating and romantic dynamics, Social media and Instagram, Subway sandwiches, Police brutality

What the critics said

Praised for its presentness, raw candor, and Jones's refusal to exploit his illness for sympathy, though critics noted pacing and vocal volume were slightly uneven and unpolished.

In the room: Extremely supportive and empathetic, offering strong laughs, a collective sigh of relief once the opening joke broke the tension, and an orchestrated standing ovation.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: latimes.com, imdb.com, rynostv.com, themoviedb.org, vulture.com, hbowatch.com, decider.com, thecomicscomic.com, hbomax.com, seattlemet.com.

Backstory

After being diagnosed in 2015 with terminal stage IV peritoneal mesothelioma and given about a year to live, friends launched a Kickstarter to fund a stand-up special to serve as his legacy; the campaign went viral and led to appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, through which HBO agreed to air the special.

Details

Released
Taped
Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles
Runtime
53 min
Where
HBO
Director
Mickey Blaine
Topics

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