Hey Big Boy
Netflix · 2020 · 62 min
Shirtless storytelling about raising teenage daughters and buying handguns.
Bert Kreischer walks out shirtless and immediately launches into a graphic story about his aggressive bathroom habits. That set-up establishes the baseline for an hour where his eternal-frat-boy energy collides with the domestic chaos of raising teenage daughters. The centerpiece of the special is a detailed story about throwing his daughter a red-velvet-themed “period party” and inviting clueless neighborhood boys just to watch them squirm. It is the kind of specific, slightly boundary-pushing family anecdote that works because Kreischer leans entirely into his own absurdity as a parent.
Recorded over seven sold-out nights at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, the 2020 Netflix release arrived right as the stand-up industry ground to a halt due to the pandemic. Despite the timing, the hour helped cement Kreischer’s transition from a niche cult comic and the real-life inspiration for National Lampoon’s Van Wilder into a massive arena headliner. He rounds out the set with stories about buying a handgun through a sketchy California workaround, his dad getting high on edibles, and an awkward, high-stakes interaction with a starstruck Starbucks barista.
The set list
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Defecating in a gender-neutral bathroom.
Opening the special with an aggressive bathroom encounter that made the woman in the adjacent stall question her politics.
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Being recognized by an LA Starbucks barista ('Black Starbucks').
Developing an inside joke and writing jokes specifically tailored for a barista on the day two Black men were arrested at Starbucks.
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Buying a gun on a whim in Los Angeles.
Framing the purchase as an impulse to see how easy it would be, self-identifying as an irresponsible gun owner to alienate both sides of the gun control debate.
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Throwing a 'Period Party' for his daughter.
Celebrating his daughter getting her first period on Friday the 13th in honor of 'Jason' and playing a memorable game of Scattergories.
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His father trying marijuana edibles.
Riffing on his dad discovering pot and sharing his own experiences being excessively high.
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Being left home alone with his daughters for nine days while having to stay sober.
Struggling through solo fatherhood to the point of jokingly seeing both sides of the abortion debate.
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Sex life changes with his wife when sick.
Proposing doggy style as safe sex so she can cough into the wall.
How it plays
- Tone
- Raunchy, goofy, collegiate, and self-deprecatingly honest.
- On stage
- Shirtless, giggling, energetic party guy and frat-house storytelling comic who laughs openly at his own jokes.
- Pace
- High-energy with giggly, jiggly enthusiasm, pacing out longer narrative setups to build up to large, boisterous climaxes.
- About
- parenting and family life, gun ownership, marijuana and edibles, sex and marriage, pets
What the critics said
Reviewed by Decider as an engaging and infectious escape driven by Kreischer's modern-day R-rated sitcom family dynamic, though noted across critics as not being for everyone due to collegiate, bro-style humor and sensitive jokes.
In the room: Energetic, rowdy, and heavy-drinking crowd; during taping in Cleveland, audience members attempted to come up to the stage to get Kreischer to do shots.
Backstory
Released on St. Patrick's Day (March 17, 2020) right as the world entered shutdowns and quarantines during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details
- Released
- Runtime
- 62 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- Jeff Tomsic
- Topics
- Before
- Secret Time (2018)
- After
- Razzle Dazzle (2023)
More from Bert Kreischer
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Lucky
Netflix
-
Razzle Dazzle
Netflix
-
Secret Time
Netflix
-
The Machine
Showtime
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