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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Born on 3rd Base
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Born on 3rd Base

Gary Gulman

HBO Max · 2023 · 66 min

Gary Gulman targets the wealth gap with highly detailed class frustration.

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Gary Gulman wants to talk about money, specifically how much of it he does not have compared to the ultra-wealthy, and he does so with a meticulous, exasperated style that turns class resentment into a spectator sport. It is a rare hour of stand-up dedicated almost entirely to socio-economic disparity. Rather than preaching, he frames the wealth gap through the lens of a childhood spent on welfare, free school lunches, and questionable municipal dental care. He is a comedian who obsesses over the minutiae of language, using his distinctive, literary style to pick apart everything from pretentious vocabulary to the zero-sum math of a working-class household budget.

The show was taped at Toronto’s Great Hall in 2023, arriving at a busy moment for Gulman. He was coming off the success of his memoir, Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the ‘80s, and his previous mental-health-focused hour, The Great Depresh. Executive produced by Conan O’Brien, this set leans heavily into his talent for long-form, highly detailed storytelling.

The most memorable sequences involve his lingering bitterness over economic divides. He spends a significant chunk of time comparing his own modest net worth to Jerry Seinfeld’s billions, arguing with mathematical precision that two guys in the exact same line of work should not have such a cartoonish disparity in their bank accounts. He also mocks the high-brow use of the word ‘Kafkaesque,’ suggesting the working-class alternative ‘Kafkish,’ which has the benefit of sounding like a kosher pastry you would order by the pound. Throughout the set, Gulman manages to be intensely opinionated without turning the show into a lecture, grounding his irritation in the lived reality of a kid from Peabody, Massachusetts, whose father once had to scramble to afford hockey gear.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Pop-Tarts and the indignities of free school breakfast programs

    Ranting about how toaster pastry manufacturers fail to frost the perimeter and school breakfast programs degrade poor children by giving only one Pop-Tart instead of the standard two-pack.

  2. Jerry Seinfeld's extreme wealth versus Gulman's own net worth

    Contrasting the immense pay disparity for performing the same observational comedy job and openly revealing his own net worth of $89,000 including his apartment security deposit.

  3. Chipotle ordering etiquette and service workers

    Chiding customers who rudely reach over the protective glass to point at corn and making a passionate defense of respect for service industry staff.

  4. Questionable dental care and dentistry practices

    Equating the dental profession and its reluctance to accept insurance to organized crime and highway robbery.

  5. Combining basketball and magic

    Delivering a technical, late-set routine that intricately weaves athletic play with illusions.

How it plays

Tone
Literate, witty, empathetic, socially incensed yet playful and self-effacing.
On stage
Immaculately literate, authoritative, and tall, projecting a self-assured, knowing, and playful confidence marked by triumphant grins and mock dismay.
Pace
Careful, unhurried pace with a calm, engaging delivery and commanding stage presence.
About
income inequality, poverty and welfare programs, childhood and eccentric family dynamics, billionaires and excessive wealth, service industry etiquette, mass-produced foods

What the critics said

Hailed by critics as an exceptional 'slam dunk' hour demonstrating pristine joke writing, seamlessly marrying observational comedy with unapologetic, humane commentary on poverty and American class disparity.

In the room: An unseen crowd echoing through the ornate hall, fully engaged and roaring with laughter in reciprocated connection with the comic.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: hbomax.com, rottentomatoes.com, deadline.com, primevideo.com, vulture.com, cnn.com, vanyaland.com, indiewire.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Drawing directly from his childhood growing up poor in Massachusetts and his reliance on welfare programs, framed by his newfound comfort with personal vulnerability following public disclosure of his mental health struggles.

Details

Released
Taped
The Great Hall, Toronto
Runtime
66 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
James Webb
Topics
Before
The Great Depresh (2019)

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