Comedy Central Presents: Mario Cantone

Before he became universally recognizable as Anthony Marentino on Sex and the City, Mario Cantone was unleashing a caffeinated, irritated theater-kid energy on stand-up stages. His 1999 Comedy Central Presents set captures this exact frequency. He doesn’t just deliver setups and punchlines; he mounts tiny, furious one-man plays about whatever pop culture phenomenon has recently annoyed him. The standout material locks directly into late-nineties fixations. Cantone spends time tearing apart actor-director Roberto Benigni (a necessary corrective following the inescapable Life is Beautiful Oscar campaign), obsessing over the Menendez brothers, and breaking down the behavior of obnoxious figure skaters. He also pivots to his own background, detailing his specific frustrations with Italians living in Los Angeles.