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Promotional art for Faces and Sounds
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Faces and Sounds

Pete Holmes

HBO · 2016 · 57 min

An hour of enthusiastic physical silliness from Chicago's Vic Theatre.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Pete Holmes knows exactly what he is on stage, declaring early in this hour that he doesn’t need comedy to be high art because he mostly does “faces and sounds.” It is an accurate self-assessment. Filmed at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, the city where he got his start, this 2016 HBO special catches Holmes at a pivot point in his career. His TBS late-night show was gone, his podcast You Made It Weird was a massive indie success, and he was just months away from launching Crashing, his semi-autobiographical HBO sitcom.

This hour showcases his physical, eager-to-please style of performance. He plays the giant, joyful man-child, building bits around physical and vocal execution rather than clockwork punchlines. Standout routines include his detailed breakdown of going to an Enrique Iglesias concert entirely by himself, only to leave early because he forgot encores existed. He also hits his stride mocking the patient wait of rap guest-vocalists in the studio and recreating the warm-ups of video-game voice actors screaming authoritative nonsense.

The set is a testament to Holmes’s commitment to silliness, even finding cosmic meaning in a coincidence where two different people gave him the same Dr. Seuss shirt in a single week. To him, it was a message from God to wear his “goof-goof face” uniform. While his brand of comedy might feel too eager for those who prefer dark or cynical material, the performance at the Vic proves he knows how to manipulate an audience with pure, high-energy enthusiasm.

The set list

8 bits

  1. Dr. Seuss T-shirt

    After receiving the same Dr. Seuss shirt from two different people in a week, Holmes imagines God commanding him to wear the uniform fit for his goofy face.

  2. Attending an Enrique Iglesias concert alone

    Recounts going by himself surrounded by teenage Latinas, referring to it as a 'music concert,' and momentarily forgetting that musical artists perform encores.

  3. Nightmares and the withholding human brain

    Examines how the human brain refuses to let people remain happy, urging the audience to maximize their 'joy quotient' rather than dwelling on what they could be doing.

  4. Understanding the trumpet

    Describes a personal life goal not of playing the trumpet, but simply wanting to understand how the instrument functions with only three buttons.

  5. Lenny Kravitz's name

    Observes the humorous incongruity of a remarkably cool rock star having likely been born with the uncool name Leonard.

  6. Voice acting and recording studio isolation

    Acts out the isolated absurdity of a rapper waiting patiently in a booth to chime in on a chorus, and video-game actors warming up vocal cords for nonsense battle cries.

  7. The sentence 'I edited it'

    Deconstructs the bizarre cadence and sonic repetition of the English phrase 'I edited it.'

  8. British awkwardness

    Contrasts American social reactions with how British people gracefully deflect painfully awkward situations.

How it plays

Tone
Playful, exuberant, joyful, and good-natured with flashes of bemused wonder.
On stage
A self-described 'silly, silly fun boy' and goofy man-boy with an open, toothy smile, eager to please and positioning himself as an ambassador for positivity through self-deprecating yet confident silliness.
Pace
High-energy and animated yet patient, with infectious enthusiasm; willing to let bits build to breaking points through silent face-work and self-aware laughter at his own jokes.
About
sleep and nightmares, cultivating joy and happiness, traveling and flying, quirks of the English language, British conversational awkwardness, sex, porn, and strip clubs

What the critics said

Critically praised for its deceptively smart comic acting, unassuming stage persona, and infectious joy, proving that Holmes's reliance on expressive faces and silly vocal sound effects enhances rather than detracts from well-crafted stand-up.

In the room: Warm and receptive hometown-style Chicago crowd that enthusiastically welcomed Holmes, who opened by professing that walking onstage felt like the best moment of his life.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: tv.apple.com, hbomax.com, rottentomatoes.com, allmovie.com, thecomicscomic.com, avclub.com, decider.com, vulture.com, en.wikipedia.org, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Filmed at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, the city where Holmes began developing his stand-up voice after college; broadcast on HBO to introduce Holmes to the network's audience ahead of the February debut of his Judd Apatow-produced sitcom Crashing.

Details

Released
Taped
Vic Theatre, Chicago
Runtime
57 min
Where
HBO
Director
Marcus Raboy
Topics
Before
Nice Try, The Devil (2013)
After
Dirty Clean (2018)

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