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Promotional art for Live (At the Time)
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Live (At the Time)

Demetri Martin

Netflix · 2015 · 61 min

A stripped-down hour of deadpan one-liners and acoustic guitar.

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In an era where stand-up was pivoting hard toward confessional storytelling, Demetri Martin planted his feet and remained a resolute craftsman of the one-liner. Live (At the Time) strips away the giant sketchpads of his earlier specials, leaving him to fire off deadpan observations about hairless cats, color schemes, and the word “nope”. He still wears a harmonica and strums a guitar for musical interludes, but the focus is squarely on the mechanics of his joke construction.

Filmed at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., the hour represents a subtle shift in tone for the comedian. Fans and critics at the time noted a sharper, faintly cynical edge beneath the usual wordplay, as he stepped back slightly from his trademark quirkiness. He spends the runtime questioning the utility of simple tools, assessing the romantic merits of a Jumbotron proposal, and engaging in some light karate bragging.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Proposing on a stadium Jumbotron

    Observes that a giant stadium screen could just as easily be used as a smooth escape route for breaking up with someone.

  2. 'Bridge May Be Icy' signs

    Muses on the useless uncertainty of the phrasing and argues an optimistic sign like 'Bridge probably not icy. Give it a shot' would be preferable.

  3. Pets as animals that are not delicious

    Theorizes that humans attempted to eat all species, choosing to put sweaters on and give first names only to the ones that tasted bad, creating a thin line between pets and hostages.

  4. Missing cat posters

    Argues the poster is strictly from the human perspective, whereas the cat would post 'Free cat. Finally.'

  5. Hairless cats

    Imagines God procrastination in creating animals, likening the creature to a meth addict and wondering how regular cats view it.

  6. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Guitar and harmonica rapid-fire finale closer

    Spoken-word series of acute one-liners mostly phrased as 'I think...' statements accompanied by guitar and punctuated by harmonica bursts, ending with an emphatic 'Indeeeeeed!!!'

How it plays

Tone
Deadpan, dry, quirky, wry, and cerebral.
On stage
Deadpan, soft-spoken, dry, and slightly awkward 'wallflower' persona, acting as the straight man to his own offbeat, cerebral thoughts.
Pace
Steady, unrelenting drip of rapid-fire micro-jokes delivered as a stream of consciousness without smooth transitions, concluding with an uptempo musical segment.
About
linguistic loopholes and wordplay, signs and warnings, pets and animals, mundane social situations and human behavior

What the critics said

Praised as a refreshing, smart, and consistently funny showcase of sharp one-liners and distinct wordplay, though some critics felt the absence of storytelling made it feel less inventive than his earlier work or suggested his formula's novelty was waning.

In the room: Attentive theater crowd responding warmly to the continuous barrage of dry punchlines.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, scrapsfromtheloft.com, rottentomatoes.com, pastemagazine.com, exclaim.ca, stanforddaily.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Released amid a contemporary stand-up climate saturated with confessional, anecdote-heavy, provocative 'tell it like it is' comics, contrasting with Martin's defiantly impersonal, observational one-liner style.

Details

Released
Taped
The Lincoln Theater, Washington
Runtime
61 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Jaime Eliezer Karas
Topics
Before
Standup Comedian (2012)
After
The Overthinker (2018)

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