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Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Comedy Dynamics

Back of the Bus Funny

Keith Robinson

Comedy Central · 2015 · 67 min

An abrasive hour of stand-up from Kevin Hart's comedy mentor.

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Keith Robinson works a room like he is picking a fight he knows he will win. A staple of the New York scene known for his confrontational approach, Robinson brings that exact club energy to his first hour. He is actively unsentimental, detailing the tactical differences in how men and women cheat, explaining the real reason Barack Obama was elected, and pinpointing the exact day he realized he no longer liked his own son. The delivery is loud and entirely unsympathetic to anyone looking for a softer touch.

Filmed at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City in 2015, the hour was produced and presented by Kevin Hart. At the time, Hart was an arena act, but he used this release to highlight the man who mentored him back in the Philadelphia clubs. After decades of being a working peer, writing for television, and holding court at the Comedy Cellar, Robinson uses the platform to air his grievances about aging and modern politics with his signature friction.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Challenging the slogan 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people'

    Argues that guns do kill people and that people don't commit 'mass chokings,' acting out a scenario of someone trying to sneak up on a crowd to choke them.

  2. Kevin Hart's massive Twitter following

    Riffs that out of Hart's millions of followers only a handful are white, calling Hart 'the Red Lobster of comedy.'

  3. The real reason Barack Obama was elected president

    Weighs in on politics with his unfiltered take on why America elected Obama.

  4. Parenting an adult child in his twenties

    Recounts raising his son who entered his 'terrible twenties,' dealing with his child's mother, and pinpointing the exact moment he stopped liking his own son.

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, unfiltered, and confrontational.
On stage
Confrontational, in-your-face, raunchy, and unapologetic.
About
parenting, politics, getting older, people being too sensitive, gun violence

What the critics said

Praised as a long-deserved, sharp hour from a dedicated stand-up purist and comic's comic whose decades of refining material produced a standout performance.

In the room: A packed theatre filled with fellow comedians and Tough Crowd peers (including Chris Rock and Colin Quinn) reacting to Robinson's confrontational delivery.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, imdb.com, humormilltv.com, netflix.com, unscenecomedy.com, letterboxd.com, theinterrobang.com, comedymatterstv.com, en.wikipedia.org, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Longtime mentor to younger stand-ups including Kevin Hart, who produced the special and introduced him on stage. The title 'Back of the Bus Funny' refers to the back of the school bus as Robinson's original proving ground for testing humor against tough crowds.

Details

Released
Taped
2014, Gramercy Theatre, New York City
Runtime
67 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Leslie Small
Honors
Ranked #2 in Unscene Comedy's Top Five for February 2015
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2005)
After
Different Strokes (2024)

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