X
HBO · 2019 · 89 min
A standard stand-up set that pivots into a serious confrontation.
Daniel Sloss spends the first forty-five minutes of this set doing exactly what his fans expect: swaggering around the stage, talking about his own ego, and making crude jokes about sex and gender politics. But the real reason to watch is the final twenty-five minutes, where he intentionally drops the comedy entirely to tell a sobering story about how he and his friend group responded when a close male friend raped another friend. It’s a jarring bait-and-switch that uses a metaphor about boiling crabs to argue that quiet complicity is what keeps toxic behavior alive.
Filmed at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, Australia, in April 2019, the show served as Sloss’s first special for HBO. He was riding a massive wave of momentum following his 2018 Netflix specials, Dark and Jigsaw, the latter of which became famous for causing thousands of relationship breakups. With X (the title representing his tenth solo show), Sloss used his elevated profile to tackle the #MeToo movement and the structures of toxic masculinity, positioning himself as both a critic of peer culture and an active participant who had to learn the hard way.
The response to the special reflected its polarizing structure. While many critics praised the ambition of using a comedy stage to deliver a serious essay on sexual violence, some comedy fans and critics felt the dramatic tone shift abandoned the premise of stand-up entirely. Sloss, however, remained unapologetic about the choice, framing the uncomfortable silence as the entire point of the exercise.
The set list
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Love of children and his toddler goddaughter/niece
Uses early misdirection touching on taboo discomfort before revealing genuine affection, teaching her to flip off horses, and playing a monster.
-
Caveman instincts and the mental archivist 'Nigel'
Playacts an internal archivist who stores his outdated masculine impulses, sports insecurities, and past ignorant beliefs to illustrate emotional maturation.
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Compulsory sex education
Argues for sex education emphasizing actual sexual behavior and consent rather than mere anatomy, noting adult men desperately need to understand safe, lawful sex.
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Friend's sexual assault and men's accountability under #MeToo
Shifts into what he terms a 'sad 15-minute TED talk', recounting how a close friend raped another friend, detailing his own guilt and useless violent impulses, and urging men to proactively intervene against rape culture.
How it plays
- Tone
- Tastefully dark, incisive, provocative, and vulgar, transitioning into solemn, introspective gravity.
- On stage
- Puckish, razor-sharp, and unapologetically dark Scottish comic who oscillates between playful juvenile banter and intense, vulnerable confrontation.
- Pace
- Described as a 'boiling frog' progression—starting with deceptive, tension-fueled misdirection and banter before pivoting into a solemn, focused 15-minute reckoning.
- About
- Toxic masculinity, Gender constructs, Safe sex and sex education, The #MeToo movement and sexual assault, Maturing out of ignorant opinions
What the critics said
Universally acclaimed as a bold, incisive, and masterfully controlled comedy special that tackled male complicity, sexual assault, and #MeToo with nuance, sharp wit, and genuine gravity.
In the room: Taped across two sold-out performances where the crowd was kept in a state of controlled tension and provocative discomfort before raptly listening to the sobering finale.
Backstory
Set against the cultural backdrop of the #MeToo movement; personally catalyzed by Sloss learning that one of his close male friends had raped a close female friend, alongside his former manager experiencing a #MeToo moment.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Enmore Theatre, Sydney
- Runtime
- 89 min
- Where
- HBO
- Director
- Daniel Sloss
- Topics
- Before
- Jigsaw (2018)
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