Comedy Now!

Daryn Jones was already a familiar face on Canadian television when he taped his 2003 Comedy Now! special, but his stand-up was an introduction for those only used to his chaotic street-interview show, Buzz. On stage, he sheds his high-energy television persona for an easy, direct rapport with the crowd, taking aim at his own life with a cynical edge.

Taped at the Masonic Temple in Toronto and broadcast in 2004, the half-hour set caught Jones during a major career transition, right as he was moving from Buzz to writing and reporting for the Rick Mercer Report. He uses the stage to detail his brief, underwhelming stint in theater school, noting that the only acting he actually mastered was pretending to be stupid whenever the student loan officer called.

Rather than sticking to safe, comfortable material, Jones happily overshares. With his parents sitting in the front row, he steers the set into a lengthy bit about their sex toys, showing a level of comfort that likely made for a tense drive home. He also details his time auditing pilot season in the United States during the SARS crisis, dryly noting that American cable news was perfectly fine sending soldiers to Iraq but petrified that Toronto was going to sneeze on them.