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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Comedy Central Presents

Laura Kightlinger

Comedy Central · 2003 · 21 min

A flatly delivered half-hour of dark, low-energy observation.

Laura Kightlinger has a way of delivering bleakly funny, borderline-apathetic observations like she is reading a shopping list she didn’t want to write. In her 2003 half-hour special, she treats the stage with the cool, dry detachment of a veteran alternative comic, offering practical survival advice like how to successfully hang up on your mother. Her set relies heavily on deadpan, self-deprecating dark comedy, whether she is analyzing her rule to never look at a partner’s face during sex or explaining why she can no longer share a bed with her mom.\n\nTaped at the Hudson Theatre in New York City, this special caught Kightlinger at a busy juncture in her career. At the time, she was working behind the scenes as a writer and consulting producer on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, where she also occasionally popped up on camera as Nurse Sheila. She was also concurrently directing Sixty Spins Around the Sun, an award-winning documentary about drug law reform. Though she is widely recognized as a writer’s writer in television, this 22-minute showcase highlights her distinct, cynical perspective on the stand-up stage. It demonstrates the sharp, dry writing style that made her a staple of the late 1990s and early 2000s Los Angeles alternative comedy scene.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Finding a therapist

    Quips that she just needs someone who will listen to her complain and prescribe drugs.

  2. The keys to performing stand-up comedy

    Breaks down humorous insights and advice on the mechanics of doing stand-up comedy.

  3. Hanging up on your mother

    Provides comedic advice and strategies for ending phone conversations with one's mother.

  4. The 'LA douchebag' and modern dating

    Explores the difficulty of finding a decent man in Los Angeles who is not covered in tattoos and sporting a fedora.

  5. Disastrous strip club date

    Relates an awful date where a man brought her to a strip club, leading to her being mistaken for a dancer and saved by security.

  6. Struggles with depression

    Addresses personal battles with depression and describes the sensation of living inside a fog.

  7. Controlling ex-boyfriends

    Details a past dysfunctional relationship with a partner who obsessively demanded to review all of her emails and text messages.

How it plays

Tone
Dry, dark, sarcastic, relatable, and cuttingly honest
On stage
Dry, dark, sarcastic, smart, and fiercely independent
About
dating and single life, depression and therapy, life in Los Angeles, relationships, family

What the critics said

Reviewed as a must-see, smart, and edgy half-hour that succeeds through Kightlinger's unique perspective, frank honesty, and fearless approach to difficult personal themes.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: paramountplus.com, thetvdb.com, therokuchannel.roku.com, metacritic.com, yidio.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Part of Season 7 of Comedy Central Presents, the network's showcase series taped in New York City featuring custom set designs tailored to each comedian's material and persona.

Details

Released
Runtime
21 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Paul Miller
Topics
Before
Pulp Comics (1997)

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