The Standups: Joe List

Joe List leans hard into his neuroses for his thirty-minute set, transforming childhood humiliations and adult social anxieties into highly relatable fuel. He spends a significant chunk of the performance breaking down the awkwardness of going to the gym, but the highlights are his deeply funny, specific memories of being bullied as a kid. He details a brutal encounter where a classmate explained the mechanics of making fun of him, defining it as ‘creating fun using your face, body, personality, and pant legs’ because List himself wasn’t fun. Filmed at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, this was released in March 2018 as part of the second season of Netflix’s showcase series. At this stage in his career, List was already a familiar face on late-night sets and co-host of the Tuesdays with Stories podcast, but this half-hour served as his largest platform yet. He also touches on threatening to sue a surgeon after a childhood tooth extraction and getting burned by a girl who told him his forehead looked like a ‘fivehead.’ Paste Magazine rated the set a 7.0, praising the inspired writing of his childhood anecdotes while noting the performance stays squarely within a singular, anxious lane.