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Promotional art for Besser Breaks the Record
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Besser Breaks the Record

Matt Besser

Seeso · 2016 · 63 min

A noisy, character-driven hour featuring punk bands and fake rivals.

UCB co-founder Matt Besser treats his first solo comedy special less like a standard stand-up set and more like a carefully organized variety riot. Recorded live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood, the show abandons standard observational routines in favor of musical backup bands, character bits, and an escalating series of stunts designed to let Besser smash obscure comedy world records. Much of the material pulls from Besser’s stage catalog, including his recurring reading of unhinged, real-life Letters to the Editor, which he delivers with the theatrical intensity of a punk frontman. He runs through his own customized Ten Commandments, clashes with a group of crossword puzzle enthusiasts in the crowd, and brings out his fictional rival, a grim Soviet alternative comedian named Ivan Krushnev Jr. The special debuted in January 2016 as a launch-day original for NBC’s short-lived streaming platform, Seeso, capturing Besser at a point when his weekly Earwolf podcast improv4humans was establishing its signature loose, character-driven energy.

The set list

4 bits

  1. TSA Pre-Show Instructions and Champ Entrance

    Portrays a TSA agent wearing a fake mustache to issue cell phone and vibrator warnings to the audience before entering the theater like a boxing champion in a robe and belt.

  2. Reading and Singing Letters to the Editor

    Shares historical angry letters to editors and corporations—including complaints regarding glossy paper in Chicago Tribune Sunday crosswords—and performs them with punk rock energy backed by music.

  3. Updated Ten Commandments

    Proposes modern revisions to the biblical commandments such as 'Don't Be Lame' while detouring into the difficulties of obtaining medicinal marijuana compared to buying guns.

  4. Comedy Record-Breaking Feats

    Attempts competitive speed feats such as the fastest joke told, most jokes in one minute, most jokes while eating, the impossible rhyme, and most characters in five minutes to defeat Soviet comedy rival Ivan Krushnev Jr.

How it plays

Tone
Satirical, absurdist, irreverent, and energetic with a punk rock aesthetic.
On stage
An aggressive, record-obsessed comedic challenger entering the stage like a prize-fighter in a robe and belt, blending character sketch work with stand-up.
Pace
Rapid-fire and relentless, deliberately designed around speed and breaking comedy records in short time frames.
About
Breaking comedy records, Grievances and angry letters to the editor, Revising religious commandments, Marijuana, gun laws, and anxiety, Character auditions and caricatures

What the critics said

Praised as an inventive, fast-paced character showcase and one-man show that departs from conventional stand-up formats through speed and theatricality.

In the room: Intimate, close-proximity theater atmosphere where the audience is directly integrated into the performance.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, imdb.com, catalog.ocls.org, vulture.com, thecomicscomic.com, arktimes.com, chicagoreader.com.

Backstory

Released on the newly launched comedy streaming platform Seeso alongside The UCB Show; drawing on material and characters Besser developed over decades starting from his early Chicago comedy days.

Details

Released
Taped
UCB Theater, Hollywood
Runtime
63 min
Where
Seeso
Director
Matt Besser
Topics
After
Pot Humor (2019)

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