Spicy Honey

Todd Barry does not raise his voice, and he does not move around the stage unless an audience member is literally walking up to tie his shoe. His performance style relies on deadpan control, finding humor in the minute friction of daily interactions, like a customer service agent over-explaining a texting emergency or a professional organizer trying to make him throw out his junk. It is a show about the small irritations of modern life, delivered by a man who sounds like he is explaining a mildly disappointing lunch.

Filmed at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and released in late 2017, the hour caught Barry three decades into his stand-up career. It highlights his dual strengths: written, specific premises and casual crowd work. One of the standout sequences of the hour features Barry questioning an audience member who works at the independent record label Sacred Bones, mocking the employee’s insistence that filmmaker David Lynch is their biggest artist.

The hour also features a lengthy rumination on a cheap New York slice shop, the absurdity of expensive hotel soap, and Barry’s reluctance to declutter his apartment. It remains a steady demonstration of Barry’s timing, showing how much weight a comic can put on a single, delayed syllable.