Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time

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.