Please Believe It

Dwayne Perkins works with a calm, conversational cadence that makes odd logic sound completely reasonable. He does not shout or rush. Instead, he sets up an argument, such as the sudden expense that hits anyone taking up cycling or the utter lack of social accountability on the internet, and methodically follows the premise through to its conclusion.

Filmed at the Dry Bar Comedy club in Provo, Utah, and directed by Aaron Stephenson, the 49-minute set was distributed by Comedy Dynamics in early 2018. It arrived shortly after his 2016 Netflix hour Take Note, catching the Brooklyn-raised veteran in a groove refined over decades of club headlining and late-night sets on Conan.

Dry Bar’s strict clean-comedy policy usually forces comics into safe suburban territory, but Perkins treats the constraint as ordinary club mechanics. He questions the logistical guilt behind being told to finish dinner because of starving children in Africa, breaks down dollar store economics, and separates actual athletic sports from hobbies that merely involve moving around outside.