The Half Hour

Dan Soder’s 2013 installment of Comedy Central’s The Half Hour captures a working New York club comic right on the edge of a larger career. Soder builds the set around the transitional misery of turning twenty-nine, complaining about his persistent single status and his peers’ reliance on gentrification and abbreviations. He leans on a natural conversational cadence and his famously deep baritone to make his frustrations sound casual, avoiding the trap of coming off entirely bitter.

Filmed at the Royale in Boston, the twenty-four-minute television broadcast arrived just as Soder was gaining traction as a regular on MTV2’s Guy Code. The performance acts as a clean introduction to the laid-back storytelling that would soon land him hour-long specials, acting roles, and a long-running radio gig on The Bonfire.