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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Despair II: Social Justice Warlord

Adam Quesnell

Apple Music · Album · 2018

An anxious Midwestern comic faces existential dread in a coffee shop.

Listen on Apple Music(opens in a new tab)

Adam Quesnell addresses the general panic of the late 2010s by leaning directly into his self-deprecating neuroses and small-town cynicism. Recorded at the Red Raven Espresso Parlor in Fargo, North Dakota, the hour pivots on the contrast between high-minded progressive politics and the absolute exhaustion of daily life—particularly when dealing with late-night fast-food policies or the semantics of paranormal entities.

The special, released by Stand Up! Records in September 2018, caught Quesnell at a career turning point. Having established himself as a central figure in the Fargo and Minneapolis comedy scenes, he recorded this hour shortly before relocating to Los Angeles to focus on screenwriting. The material trades on his signature brand of existential dread, jumping between a hypothetical letter to an adopted daughter and an absurd breakdown of the difference between a baby ghost and a ghost baby. While some reviewers noted his Trump-era political commentary felt slightly of-its-moment, the hour is generally anchored by his skill at wrapping social observations inside self-critical, low-stakes premises like prophetic mustard advertisements.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Yelp reviews of the human womb

    Composing a mock review of the only place everyone has visited, which lays the groundwork for a major callback at the end of the show

  2. McDonald's all-day breakfast policy

    Ranting with genuine passion about the lengthy corporate delay in offering biscuits after dusk

  3. Constitutional originalism and Brett Kavanaugh

    Satirizing the rigid logic and perceived stupidity of originalist judicial interpretations of the U.S. Constitution

  4. The Biggest Fear of a White Idiot

    A veiled, satirical critique exploring racism and paranoia in the United States

  5. Ghost babies vs. baby ghosts

    A silly, pedantic dissection exploring the ontological distinctions between a baby who is a ghost and an infantile apparition

  6. Science and pregnant women

    Addressing scientific concepts around pregnancy that deliberately circle back to the opening womb review

How it plays

Tone
Dark, absurd, edgy, and silly
On stage
The 'Social Justice Warlord', satirical, self-deprecating, and masking sharp social commentary behind seeming superficiality
Pace
Erratic and varied, described by critics as 'all over the place' yet cohesive
About
performative activism, social signaling and privilege, racism in the United States, constitutional originalism, fast food policies, absurdist paranormal semantics

What the critics said

Praised by critics for balancing silly, superficial absurdities with sharp, edgy, and socially aware satire, though his direct Donald Trump commentary was noted as somewhat banal

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: watchwhatwhere.com, standuprecords.com, en.kinorium.com, en.wikipedia.org, theseriouscomedysite.com, imdb.com.

Backstory

Reflecting late-2010s political and social anxieties, including Donald Trump's presidency, Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court originalism, and debates surrounding performative activism and privilege

Details

Released
Taped
Red Raven cafe, Fargo
Where
Apple Music (album)
Director
Ian Rans
Honors
Named one of Johnny Taylor's favorite comedy albums of 2018 on Now Hear This
Topics
Before
Egghead (2018)

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