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Promotional art for Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time

Rory Scovel

Netflix · 2017 · 66 min

A seasoned comic plays a manic amateur in a chaotic meta-special.

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Rory Scovel spends the first few minutes of his 2017 Netflix special shouting at an audience about anal sex, insisting that this single, juvenile premise is the entire show. It is a fitting introduction to an hour of stand-up that treats the entire medium of the filmed comedy special as a structure to be systematically dismantled. Despite the title, Scovel was over a decade into his career when he taped this at the Relapse Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Instead of delivering a standard hour of polished, road-tested observational material, he serves up a manic, high-energy meta-performance that relies heavily on audience interrogation and spontaneous riffing.

Filmed over three nights in a converted church, the special features a visual and conceptual grandiosity that clashes with Scovel’s chaotic energy. He enters the stage via a long, cinematic tracking shot mimicking Scorsese, complete with fake drug use and a dramatic, screaming entrance, only to be introduced by an MC who gets his name completely wrong. Between bits about the absurd performance art of airport TSA security lines and his desire to use the Thong Song as a suicide note, the show halts for a scripted mid-set sketch featuring musician Jack White, whose label, Third Man Records, produced the special. For a comic who had already built a reputation as an unpredictable live performer on the late-night circuit, the hour served as a showcase for what happens when a veteran gets a budget to act like a complete amateur.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Opening rockstar dream sequence

    Plays a self-absorbed, arrogant rockstar-style performer before suffering a rude awakening when comic Ben Kronberg smacks him across the face backstage.

  2. Interrogating the crowd about anal sex

    Spends the first several minutes sternly polling the audience, recounting his own experience ('I didn't like it, and I think that makes me a gentleman') while deconstructing whether this is really the show.

  3. Hotel room experience with a Fleshlight

    Details his exploratory trial run with the sex toy, concluding that he is simply someone who will have sex with whatever is available.

  4. Explaining how a microphone functions

    With faux-fluster, shouts out an explanation of sound equipment that sounds like a child's wild guess off the top of their head.

  5. 'Swanky Questions' talk show sketch with Jack White

    A mid-show mock interview segment hosted by Ben Swank where musician Jack White pitches the concept of filming a completely inexperienced comedian who has no idea what he's doing.

  6. Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories

    Explores the absurdity of birther theories, arguing that if someone could fake their citizenship and successfully rise to president of another country, it is an astonishing achievement.

  7. Mayors smoking crack

    Muses on mayors smoking crack and cutting ribbons with giant scissors.

How it plays

Tone
Absurd, playful, subversive, offbeat, and irreverent.
On stage
Jangly, wide-eyed in-the-moment absurdist adopting a shell game of expectations, shifting rapidly between personas and faux-flustered wonder like a one-man improv team.
Pace
Energetic and curious momentum punctuated by unyielding awkwardness, lengthy setups, brute repetition, and deliberate, uncomfortable pauses hitting Andy Kaufman-esque anti-humor.
About
Sex and sexual mishaps, Relationships, Politics and the 2016 presidential election, Deconstruction of stand-up comedy conventions, Absurdist childhood wonder, Dinosaurs and extinction

What the critics said

Widely praised by critics as one of the most inventive and funniest stand-up specials of the year, lauded for balancing meta-commentary on the medium with biting political and absurdist humor.

In the room: Filmed in front of an intimate, packed, low-ceiling room where Scovel embraced the proximity of the audience, winning over initially puzzled spectators through sheer commitment to escalating absurdities.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: theoutline.com, broadwayworld.com, rottentomatoes.com, vulture.com, avclub.com, thecomicscomic.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Filmed in 2016 prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election and bankrolled independently by Third Man Records (founded by Jack White and Ben Swank) to maintain complete editorial control before being sold to Netflix.

Details

Released
Taped
2016, The Relapse Theater, Atlanta
Runtime
66 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Scott Moran
Honors
Featured on Vulture's 'June 2017's Best Standup Specials' listCited by John Mulaney as 'The funniest special in the world'
Topics
Before
The Charleston Special (2016)
After
Religion, Sex and a Few Things in Between (2024)

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