Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for I Agree with Myself
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

I Agree with Myself

Gary Owen

Showtime · 2015 · 75 min

An unfiltered hour of cultural observations and family comedy.

Watch on Showtime(opens in a new tab)

or watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Gary Owen built his audience by saying the quiet part out loud about race and family dynamics, and his 2015 Showtime hour tests exactly how far that goodwill stretches. Playing to his core demographic, he approaches cultural differences and marital disputes as a guy who simply refuses to overthink things, leaning on a casual, loud delivery to sell premises that would sound aggressive coming from someone else.

Filmed in front of a sold-out crowd in Atlanta, the set captures the comedian during a major career swing, arriving just after his appearances in the Think Like a Man films. He spends plenty of time on his marriage and the realities of raising kids in an interracial household. The hour is perhaps best known for a specific routine about his cousin that drew organized protests from disability advocacy groups. The backlash prompted Owen to meet directly with advocates, leading him to voluntarily cut the segment from the on-demand broadcast and permanently drop the material from his act.

The set list

1 bit

  1. Routine discussing his cousin with an intellectual disability having sex and his volunteer work with the Special Olympics.

    Owen repeatedly uses the R-word and mocks the speech, love, and sexuality of individuals with intellectual disabilities, attempting to justify the routine by noting she is his cousin and that he volunteered for the Special Olympics for ten years.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, provocative, and vulgar.
On stage
Described as 'fearless and happy-go-lucky', blending good cheer, high energy, and self-deprecation.
About
family, race, gender, politics, disability, sex

What the critics said

Met with severe public outcry, condemnation, and petitions from disability rights advocates and organizations such as Special Olympics and The Arc, who labeled his routine regarding intellectual disabilities callous verbal violence and dehumanizing.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tv.apple.com, themoviedb.org, tvguide.com, en.wikipedia.org, vibe.com, huffpost.com, themighty.com, thearc.org, buzzfeed.com.

Backstory

Filmed while navigating his unique position as a white comic performing almost exclusively for Black audiences, married to a Black woman, and touring nationally alongside major Black comedians.

Details

Released
Runtime
75 min
Where
Showtime
Director
Leslie Small
Topics
After
#DoinWhatIDo (2019)

More from Gary Owen

If you liked this