Comedy Central Presents

Chris D’Elia relies heavily on physical movement and character work to sell a joke, and his 2011 half-hour leans into that kinetic style. The set opens with material about the grim realities of starting out in Los Angeles dive bars, before moving into a routine breaking down the absurdity of British heist movies. He avoids the stationary microphone approach, opting instead to drop to the ground or act out voices to push the punchlines.

Filmed as part of the fifteenth season of Comedy Central Presents, this televised set caught the comic just as he was breaking into network television. He was appearing on the TBS college show Glory Daze at the time, and would soon land a regular role opposite Whitney Cummings on NBC’s Whitney. The material sticks to conversational storytelling, concluding with bits about getting hopelessly lost in Hawaii and mimicking rapper cadences.