Dirty Clean

Pete Holmes is a comedian who wants his audience to feel warm, safe, and happy, even when he is talking about wanting to shake a crying baby. He performs with an aggressive, puppy-dog earnestness, spending as much time managing the mood in the room as he does delivering punchlines. He treats the entire performance like a shared physical exercise, at one point instructing the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” in their heads to see if they can collectively make the silent chorus louder.\n\nTaped at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon, this 2018 hour was filmed while his HBO sitcom Crashing was between its second and third seasons. It reflects a comedian who is much more settled and content than his onscreen counterpart. Holmes is a new father who has discovered that the best part of sleep is the act of falling asleep, and a suburban convert who happily wears Lululemon yoga pants without ever intending to do yoga. He touches on the afterlife and Elon Musk, but the core of the show remains his peculiar, high-energy charm—the kind that leads older ladies to thank him for being “clean” right after a set full of swear words.