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Promotional art for The Half Hour: Chris Distefano
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The Half Hour

Chris Distefano

Comedy Central · 2014 · 21 min

A quick set of personal storytelling and bad day jobs.

Watch on Comedy Central(opens in a new tab)

Chris Distefano leans heavily into his outer-borough roots for this quick set, trading on his natural rhythm as an animated guy holding court. The material is extremely personal and slightly combative. He shares stories about getting fired from the U.S. Open and a strange encounter where Tracy Morgan grabbed his butt. A standout bit drops any pretense of maturity, featuring Distefano recounting a literal physical altercation he had with a nine-year-old over pistachio ice cream.

Taped at The Royale in Boston for the third season of Comedy Central’s The Half Hour, the performance captures the comic as his television profile was rising. In 2014, he was best known as a talking head on MTV2’s Guy Code, and this 22-minute television spot served as an early showcase of the frantic storytelling that would define his later work.

The set list

3 bits

  1. Fighting over pistachio ice cream

    Recounting a revelation about getting into a fight over pistachio ice cream with a 9-year-old

  2. Gentrification of his longtime neighborhood

    Joking about being a longtime Bushwick, Brooklyn resident and calling himself an 'original white gangster'

  3. Family dynamics and his upbringing

    Using self-deprecation to joke about and embellish stories about his Italian-Irish Catholic background, his supportive father, and his mother's reaction to him leaving physical therapy for comedy

How it plays

Tone
Self-deprecating
On stage
Self-deprecating Italian-Irish Catholic New Yorker
About
Family and parents, Gentrification and living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Childhood and personal life, Past day jobs

Backstory

Distefano learned he booked the special while dealing with an emotionally painful romantic breakup alone in Times Square; he had set aside a doctorate degree and career in pediatric physical therapy to do standup full-time

Details

Released
Runtime
21 min
Where
Comedy Central
Topics
After
Size 38 Waist (2019)

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