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Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Standup Comedian

Demetri Martin

Comedy Central · 2012 · 60 min

A rapid-fire barrage of quiet one-liners and sketchpad graphs.

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Demetri Martin intentionally strips away his usual multimedia approach for this set, leaving behind the piano and slideshows to rely entirely on his quiet delivery and a large sketchpad. The result is a dense, rapid-fire stream of consciousness. Martin delivers around ninety separate bits, moving rapidly between linguistic anomalies and everyday absurdities before the crowd can fully process the last punchline. The appeal lies in this sheer volume of soft-spoken observations, treating jokes as quick puzzles rather than drawn-out narratives.

Filmed at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the 2012 Comedy Central broadcast arrived after the conclusion of his television series Important Things. Martin leans into the minutiae of modern life and language, questioning the logic of yelling at surprise parties and pointing out the oddities of silent letters working together in the same word. He still brings out his oversized pad to graph the correlation between certain behaviors and looking like a creep, but the set is dominated by quick, low-energy hits about things like automatic paper towel dispensers and the logistical hurdles of a telemarketer calling in sick.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Automatic towel dispensers

    Martin laments looking like a 'shitty magician' when waving hands at automatic dispensers, expanding into a critique of useless modern conveniences.

  2. Baby Silencer and Girlfriend Silencer

    Uses his Large Pad to illustrate a funnel-and-headphones device to silence babies, followed by a drawing of an engagement ring labeled as a girlfriend silencer.

  3. Graphs of 'Fun' vs. 'Good At'

    Presents identical curve graphs for karaoke, skiing, and reading aloud in class showing that being profoundly untalented is wildly entertaining.

  4. Spinning in your grave

    Questions why spinning is the specific way a corpse chooses to express disapproval from beyond.

  5. Cigarette redesign

    Argues health warnings fail and suggests making cigarettes shaped with two hanging balls to deter smokers.

  6. Two middle names

    Points out that having two middle names means you do not have a middle name at all, but rather a space.

  7. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Guitar and harmonica one-liners closer

    Closes the performance by strumming acoustic guitar and playing harmonica while delivering rapid-fire deadpan one-liners on topics like animal gut pinatas, one-armed arrests, and rice milk.

How it plays

Tone
Dry, cerebral, observational, deadpan, playful, and non sequitur.
On stage
Quiet, passive observer and 'noticer' of everyday absurdities with a dry, deadpan, and mildly passive-aggressive delivery.
Pace
Deliberate and dry pacing, alternating between extended observational premises, visual diagram demonstrations, crowd topic riffs, and rapid-fire scored one-liners.
About
Language and communication nuances, Common idioms and phrases, Visual infographics and diagrams, Everyday absurdities and modern conveniences, Food, relationships, and sex

What the critics said

Received mixed-to-positive reviews; praised for his clever visual charts, playful wordplay, and unique perspective, though some critics felt his deadpan one-liner approach struggled to sustain a full 60-minute duration compared to shorter formats.

In the room: Polite and attentive theater audience that participates by tossing out improvised topics like 'old people' and 'crocodiles' upon request.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, archive.kpcc.org, allmovie.com, avclub.com, underthegunreview.net, upcomingdiscs.com, popculturebeast.blogspot.com, prnewswire.com.

Backstory

Filmed in a large New York theater following his work on television sketch comedy, acting in films, and publishing his bestselling book This Is a Book.

Details

Released
Taped
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York City
Runtime
60 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Ryan Polito
Topics
Before
Person (2007)
After
Live (At the Time) (2015)

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