I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

Joe DeRosa wants you to know that things are bad and they are not getting better. Filmed at the historic Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden is his first self-directed stand-up special since 2017’s You Let Me Down. The hour leans heavily into DeRosa’s signature bleak, misanthropic outlook, taking on the vanity of online activism, the theater of Hollywood’s diversity efforts, and the inevitable collapse of civilized society.\n\nSince his previous special, DeRosa spent years co-hosting the food debate podcast Taste Buds with Sal Vulcano, popping up as the crooked veterinarian in Better Call Saul, and writing for shows like Tires. Returning to the stage for a full-length hour, he skips the typical setups for a series of frustrated rants. He rages against the superficiality of modern political posturing, targets environmental activism with a bit urging Greta Thunberg to quiet down, and details a bizarre experience of being briefly canceled.