Huge Pianist

Watching an imposing six-foot-seven comedian sit at a piano to explain emotional manipulation in television commercials is the highlight of the performance. Benjamin uses chord progressions the way other observational comics use mimicry, breaking down Pachelbel’s Canon in D to illustrate how pop radio repeats itself and isolating the emotional levers inside Coldplay songs. The musical segments move briskly because the technical playing is real, giving the satire actual musical weight.

Away from the bench, the material leans on reliable stand-up topics. He talks about giving bogus names to Starbucks baristas, an awkward upbringing in Oswego, New York, and the peculiar domestic endurance that kept his parents together.

It plays like an artifact from an alternate career path.

Directed by Tom Stern and released by Comedy Dynamics in early 2018, the special caught Benjamin right before a total rupture with the mainstream entertainment industry. Up to that point, he was working standard industry channels: three seasons on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, small parts in studio comedies, and recurring appearances on late-night talk shows.