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Promotional art for One-Headed Beast
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

One-Headed Beast

David Huntsberger

Stand Up! Records · 2015 · 57 min

An animated, highly cerebral stand-up set about the human mind.

Watch on Stand Up! Records(opens in a new tab)

David Huntsberger presents a stand-up set that feels more like an animated sociology lecture than a traditional club hour. Recorded in front of a quiet, intimate crowd in Austin, Texas, the performance eschews personal confessions for macro-level observations on the human mind, evolutionary traits, and cognitive biases. To bring these abstract ideas to life, Huntsberger paired his material with custom animations from over twenty different artists, projecting diverse visual styles onto a screen beside his cluttered stage.\n\nThe project was heavily shaped by Huntsberger’s tenure on the podcast Professor Blastoff, which wrapped up its run the same year. Listeners and animators from the show’s community rallied to help fund the special via Kickstarter, resulting in a hybrid visual style that breaks up the standard stand-up format. He frames the performance around a bizarre robo-scientist persona and discusses why the inner monologue in our heads is always a jerk, how humans compare to other animals, and how we struggle to find meaning in random occurrences, like connecting cloud formations to the loss of a relative.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Being awestruck by mountain clouds around Vancouver and linking the tendency to view aerosols as homes for good souls to his grandmother's death

    Explores human grief, atmospheric aerosols, and how people project meaning onto natural phenomena early in the set

  2. God or the Creator might not be an all-powerful force, but rather a middle manager doing just enough not to get fired

    Applies corporate workplace dynamics to theology and human existential questions

  3. The voice in your head is a jerk and humans claim their life story is crafted by an internal writing staff

    Satirizes the human ego and our reluctance to leave events up to happenstance

  4. Humans have it easier than any other animal on Earth, but without tools or weapons are completely useless

    Examines human fragility and baseline inadequacy compared to the animal kingdom

How it plays

Tone
Philosophical, thought-provoking, imaginative, and sociological.
On stage
Calm, cerebral, and contemplative; stands mostly in one place occasionally sipping beer from a mason jar, resembling a captivating TED Talk speaker or sociology lecturer.
Pace
Steady, unhurried, and assured; relies on a calm voice and agile mind rather than physical dynamism or high-energy pacing.
About
makeup of the human mind, human nature and baseline instincts, internal monologue and ego, God as a middle manager, human vulnerability without tools

What the critics said

Paste Magazine praised the special as a unique, philosophical hour closer to a great TED Talk or fun sociology class than traditional standup, commending Keith Blomberg's direction and how the abstract animations enhanced Huntsberger's steady, calm delivery.

In the room: Subdued, modest-sized crowd at a small Austin venue listening contemplatively rather than roaring with continuous laughter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, davidhuntsberger.com, imdb.com, pastemagazine.com, statesmanjournal.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

A Kickstarter-funded standalone project made with the help of over twenty animators worldwide who listened to Professor Blastoff and volunteered their work, accompanied by a custom-built stage made by an Austin art team.

Details

Released
Runtime
57 min
Where
Stand Up! Records
Director
Keith Blomberg
Topics

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