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Don't Take It Personal

Mike Epps

Netflix · 2015 · 59 min

A loose, rowdy theater set of old-school club comedy.

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Mike Epps commands the stage like a party host who forgot he was being recorded, keeping the energy manic from the moment he demands the crowd throw weed onto the stage. This is not a tight, narrative-driven hour of stand-up; it is a loose, rowdy club set scaled up for a historic theater. Epps leans heavily into physical comedy and crowd work, dividing the audience by birth decade to roast everyone from the “crackhead” ‘80s babies to the ‘90s generation who he claims can’t “cook, clean, fight, or read”.

Filmed at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, Don’t Take It Personal was the comic’s first Netflix special. By 2015, Epps had spent years as a reliable Hollywood character actor, popping up as the chaotic sidekick in films like Next Friday and The Hangover, but his stand-up style remained rooted in the rough energy of his early Def Comedy Jam days. That history is evident in his delivery, which relies as much on facial contortions and vocal impressions of elderly men fighting as it does on traditional punchlines.

The material is highly confrontational and deliberately outdated. Epps targets relationships, particularly the toxic pettiness of couples’ arguments where a man calls his partner a “hobbit” and she retaliates by attacking his ego. He also rails against the indignity of aging, complaining about young women who call him “uncle,” a dynamic that leads to some of his more aggressive rants.

Upon release, the special divided viewers. While his loyal fanbase appreciated the nostalgic, high-octane emcee delivery, critics found the material bloated, disorganized, and mean-spirited, particularly in its relentless focus on body-shaming and misogynistic tropes.

The set list

5 bits

  1. President Obama taking a phone call from a boy named Slick who is calling for his daughter Sasha.

    Delivers a deadpan vocal impression of the Commander-in-Chief turning on protective instincts to shut down the caller.

  2. Unsuccessful attempts to sell a kilo of cocaine.

    Recounts going to his own aunt and earnestly asking if she knows anybody who does dope because he did not know who to sell to.

  3. Men's voicemail messages left after an argument where their partner insults their penis size.

    Riffs on how men transition from bitterness to desperation to asking about TV show characters and turning to religion, followed by an act-out of talking to the girlfriend's mother.

  4. The strained relationship between a mother's boyfriend and her finicky son.

    Impersonates the complaining boyfriend reacting to the child having his third Capri Sun of the day.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Botched closing routine. closer

    Realizes he messed up the setup of his finale, restarts, retells the parts he forgot, and keeps the initial botched attempt in the special.

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, crude, unfiltered, and swaggering.
On stage
Unapologetically raunchy swagger, loose and charismatic, wearing a vibrant red blazer and vest inspired by Richard Pryor.
Pace
Starts with high energy and confidence; maintains a relaxed, somewhat loose and jumbled tempo, frequently pounding the microphone and laughing at his own jokes.
About
men's habits in arguments with women, recreational drugs and failed drug dealing, relationships, sex, and baby mamas, poverty and growing up on food stamps, fatherhood and parenting

What the critics said

Met with mixed-to-critical reviews; reviewers praised his charisma and specific bits like the Obama impression, but found the set structurally loose, reliant on unearned self-satisfaction, and weighed down by stale, regressive, and misogynistic material.

In the room: A howling, sold-out crowd that was engaged by his generational shout-outs and energetic back-and-forth.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, media.netflix.com, allmovie.com, decider.com, wegotthiscovered.com, exclaim.ca, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Marked Epps's first stand-up special for Netflix, during which he addressed his impoverished upbringing on food stamps, criminal record, past relationships, and children.

Details

Released
Taped
Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles
Runtime
59 min
Where
Netflix
Director
L. Frazier
Topics
Before
Under Rated & Never Faded (2009)
After
Only One Mike (2019)

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