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Brick Wall Comedy
Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Joe Pera

Slow & Steady

Joe Pera

YouTube · 2023 · 56 min

A slow, polite stand-up special featuring a late-night keyboard sound bath.

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Joe Pera brings his deliberately paced, mild-mannered stand-up style to Williamsburg’s Opera House in Brooklyn. Filmed in early 2023 and self-released on YouTube that autumn, the special arrived after Adult Swim canceled his series, Joe Pera Talks With You. Rather than letting the momentum fade, Pera financed the taping with his own savings. The bet paid off, earning the distinction of being the highest-rated comedy special of 2023 on Letterboxd.\n\nInstead of trying to match the rapid-fire, high-energy delivery dominant in modern stand-up, Pera relies on long pauses, gentle crowd work, and a cardigan. The quiet set features a mix of polite observational humor, a bit about looking like a man whose wife dies young, and a highly fictionalized, absurd tale of how he lost his virginity at a barn dance only to be shipped off to the Battle of the Bulge the next day.\n\nFor the final portion of the hour, composer Ryan Dann joins Pera on stage to play a soothing keyboard sound bath. Pera shifts into his signature sleep-inducing style, complete with a comfy armchair, guiding the audience toward relaxation. Director Marty Schousboe catches the quiet energy of the room, including a memorable cutaway to an utterly bewildered security guard.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Filling empty ice trays for his sleeping roommates.

    Frames the mundane domestic chore as a proud triumph of providing 'cubes for my boys.'

  2. People telling him he looks and sounds like Jeffrey Dahmer following the Netflix series.

    Quips that if he did even half of what Dahmer did, his father would be extremely pissed off.

  3. Feeding a squirrel a full-size pita chip and testing its ability to handle Dr. Pepper.

    Involves the audience in an extended, deadpan vote over whether the squirrel could lift the items, pivoting into an imagined commercial where Dr. Pepper turns dogs into human women.

  4. William Hung's 2003 American Idol audition as the turning point for American society.

    Muses that American culture went wrong when 28 million viewers mocked an immigrant trying his best.

  5. Joe Pera talks you to sleep routine.

    Sits in an armchair reading from a large book while musician Ryan Dann plays relaxing synthesizer/keyboard music to put the special to bed.

How it plays

Tone
Gentle, tranquil, deadpan, cozy, and sincere.
On stage
Mild-mannered, grandfatherly, quiet, unassuming, and awkward with a nervous hunch and shaky hands, likened to Mister Rogers or Rick Steves doing comedy.
Pace
Deliberately slow, calm, collected, soft-spoken, and measured with frequent pauses.
About
Everyday mundanities, Dating and relationships, Pop culture and media, Kindness and decency, Animals and food

What the critics said

Praised as a unique, gentle, and comforting island of decency that translates Pera's distinctive television persona into a successful hour of stand-up.

In the room: Warm and receptive crowd of approximately 600 people engaging gently with his deadpan crowd questions.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: pitchfork.com, letterboxd.com, themoviedb.org, decider.com, pastemagazine.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Self-financed using his own savings after the demise of his Adult Swim television show, followed by a year of worldwide touring before filming.

Details

Released
Taped
Opera House of Williamsburg
Runtime
56 min
Where
YouTube
Director
Marty Schousboe
Topics

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