Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Takin' It Too Far
Cover image credit:

Source

Takin' It Too Far

Tracy Morgan

HBO Max · 2023 · 49 min

Tracy Morgan jokes about his massive settlement and mid-life dating.

Tracy Morgan would like everyone to know that while everyone has baggage, his just happens to be Louis Vuitton. Taped at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, the 49-minute set finds the comic leaning heavily into the absurdity of the massive Walmart settlement that followed his near-fatal 2014 highway crash. He jokes about having enough money to roll his eyes at white people and expresses immense gratitude that he was hit by a major corporate entity rather than a budget retail chain.

Now in his mid-50s and divorced, Morgan uses the rest of his stage time to complain about the modern dating scene, where potential partners are well aware of his net worth. He also targets his dysfunctional family and shares his plans to reverse Brooklyn’s gentrification. While critics noted that his physical energy had slowed compared to his early stand-up days, the performance reveals a comic enjoying the comfortable, wealthy aftermath of a near-fatal disaster.

The set list

4 bits

  1. The 2022 Oscars slap between Will Smith and Chris Rock

    Utilizes a sight gag where a suited man walks out with a baseball bat to protect him onstage, quipping that Chris Rock was slapped so hard he now only dates white women.

  2. Dating in his 50s and using Tinder

    Discusses having to shoo away lap dancers due to sciatica and welcomes gold-diggers, joking that his Tinder profile is a Walmart truck dumping a bag of cash on his front lawn.

  3. Attempting to reverse Brooklyn gentrification

    Remarks on the racial and demographic changes in his neighborhood, claiming he lives next to Pepsi's former CEO and joking about getting local white women pregnant.

  4. Bobby Brown dating in his older age

    Acts out an interpretation of an aging Bobby Brown pursuing romance and performing at a New Edition reunion.

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, bawdy, crude, and irreverent.
On stage
Raw, dirty, vulgar, crude, and unapologetic, drawing comparisons to a bawdy Rodney Dangerfield or his '30 Rock' persona.
Pace
Rapid-fire and erratic like a 'comedy pinball machine,' jumping rapidly between jokes with minimal transitions; occasionally sits in a chair on stage to rest.
About
dating in his 50s, 2014 car crash and Walmart settlement, Brooklyn gentrification, dysfunctional family, aging and male genitalia, divorce and child support

What the critics said

Critics expressed disappointment, noting that the special leaned excessively into dated topics, schoolyard-level shock humor, and graphic vulgarity with little transitional storytelling or emotional introspection compared to his 2017 special.

In the room: Noted by reviewers as garnering a somewhat muted and forced response from the venue crowd, with some jokes alienating audience members unready for extreme vulgarity.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, rottentomatoes.com, hbomax.com, tvinsider.com, decider.com, cracked.com, en.wikipedia.org, yahoo.com.

Backstory

Delivered following his recovery from a catastrophic 2014 highway collision with a Walmart truck, as well as subsequent divorce proceedings, child support struggles, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details

Released
Taped
Wilbur Theater, Boston
Runtime
49 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
Marcus Raboy
Topics
Before
Staying Alive (2017)

More from Tracy Morgan

If you liked this