The Machine

Before he was selling out arenas, Bert Kreischer was a traveling TV host still trying to outrun his 1997 Rolling Stone profile as Florida State’s premier party animal. This 2016 Showtime special, recorded at the Irvine Improv in California, is the moment he successfully converted those frat-boy credentials into a sustainable stand-up act. Performing without his shirt, Kreischer leans into the friction between his past life as a reckless student and his current reality as a suburban husband and father.

The hour moves through personal storytelling that mixes family life with bizarre scenarios, like his daughter practicing softball with an imaginary ball, a family zip-lining trip, and a childhood encounter with former NBA player Ralph Sampson. But the entire special is anchored by its closing bit, an elaborate recount of a college trip to Russia. Kreischer details how he accidentally majored in Russian, earned the nickname “The Machine” from local mobsters, and ended up robbing a train full of his own classmates. The routine went viral shortly after the special’s release, defining his career and eventually inspiring a feature-length action comedy.