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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

One Night Stand

Jim Norton

HBO · 2005 · 28 min

A dirty, self-deprecating half-hour of mid-2000s club comedy.

Jim Norton is at his most effective when he is leaning into his own pathetic nature. His set focuses on his usual obsessions: extreme sexual desperation, the logistics of paying for sex, and an overarching disgust with his own physical body. He does not attempt to charm the New York crowd. Instead, he wins them over by acting out his creepy pickup techniques, which look more like a serial killer stalking prey than someone looking for a date.

Recorded at the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the set caught Norton at a busy point in his career. He was gaining national exposure as the third microphone on the Opie & Anthony radio show, and his work on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn had established his reputation for dark comedy. This half-hour, part of HBO’s mid-2000s revival of its classic showcase, also features a chunk of material about his trip to perform for troops in Iraq.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Abu Ghraib prison scandal

    Uses the controversial military prison scandal to launch into shocking, politically incorrect observational humor.

  2. Dating and women

    Performs act-outs of his awkward pickup techniques, comparing himself to a serial killer while self-deprecatingly lamenting his nonexistent love life.

  3. Touring in Iraq

    Recounts his experiences and observations while traveling to Iraq to perform for troops.

  4. Terri Schiavo

    Uses the highly publicized right-to-die case as a setup for dark, irreverent humor.

How it plays

Tone
Shocking, crass, raucous, dark, and politically incorrect.
On stage
Brazen, conversational, and deeply self-deprecating; carries an unapologetically crude, twisted, and 'Jersey everyschlub' persona embracing his physical flaws.
Pace
Rapid and briskly paced half-hour set that gets going quickly and moves without dragging.
About
sex and dating, physical imperfections, touring Iraq, political scandals, pornography

What the critics said

Praised by reviewers as a fast-paced, uninhibited, and raucously funny showcase for Norton's unapologetically vulgar, taboo-breaking, and self-deprecating comedy, while noting its crassness makes it deliberately polarizing and not suited for mainstream sensibilities.

In the room: Highly receptive live New York audience that enthusiastically connected with Norton's humor.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, primevideo.com, dvdreview.com, amazon.com, insidepulse.com, dvdtalk.com, en.wikipedia.org, wikiwand.com.

Backstory

Part of HBO's revived 'One Night Stand' half-hour stand-up comedy series, filmed after Norton's return to radio and touring following 'Opie and Anthony' returning to the airwaves.

Details

Released
Taped
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York City
Runtime
28 min
Where
HBO
Director
Steven J. Santos
Topics
Before
Yellow Discipline (2003)
After
Contextually Inadequate (2015)

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