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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Spicy Honey
Cover image credit: via TMDB

Spicy Honey

Todd Barry

Netflix · 2017 · 60 min

An hour of quiet, deadpan observations and dry crowd work.

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Todd Barry does not raise his voice, and he does not move around the stage unless an audience member is literally walking up to tie his shoe. His performance style relies on deadpan control, finding humor in the minute friction of daily interactions, like a customer service agent over-explaining a texting emergency or a professional organizer trying to make him throw out his junk. It is a show about the small irritations of modern life, delivered by a man who sounds like he is explaining a mildly disappointing lunch.

Filmed at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and released in late 2017, the hour caught Barry three decades into his stand-up career. It highlights his dual strengths: written, specific premises and casual crowd work. One of the standout sequences of the hour features Barry questioning an audience member who works at the independent record label Sacred Bones, mocking the employee’s insistence that filmmaker David Lynch is their biggest artist.

The hour also features a lengthy rumination on a cheap New York slice shop, the absurdity of expensive hotel soap, and Barry’s reluctance to declutter his apartment. It remains a steady demonstration of Barry’s timing, showing how much weight a comic can put on a single, delayed syllable.

The set list

6 bits
  1. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Takedown of a GQ article about what women supposedly want closer

    A meticulous seven-minute dissection elevating raised-eyebrow sarcasm into a takedown of online advice culture

  2. A one-dollar pizza joint

    Overthinking the premise to an absurd, preposterous conclusion before noting the scenario would blow up in his face

  3. Deciding sushi is not for him

    Understated comedic reasoning on personal food preferences

  4. Decluttering and clutter-free living advice (Marie Kondo)

    Reacting to the rule of throwing out anything that does not bring joy with the depressing realization that nothing does

  5. Hitler's taste in wine

    Dry comedic dissection

  6. Interacting with an open-mic comic in the front row

    Advising the audience member that comedians should never sit up front

How it plays

Tone
Deadpan, witty, sarcastic, and self-deprecating
On stage
Bone-dry wit and wry, deadpan delivery masked with ironic boasts of brilliance and alpha-swagger
Pace
Downbeat, unhurried, and forensic
About
stand-up comedy life and audience interactions, overthinking everyday situations, consumer culture and food, minimalism and decluttering

What the critics said

Praised as an authentic reflection of the realities of a live comedy gig and a masterclass in what it is like to be a comic, highlighted by Barry's trademark dry wit and overthinking, though some reviewers noted several routines stretch thin premises.

In the room: Relatively intimate club atmosphere featuring spontaneous audience interactions and unvarnished gig missteps.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, goldposter.com, plotexplained.com, chortle.co.uk, ayearofreviewcom.wordpress.com, thecomedybureau.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, toddbarry.com.

Details

Released
Runtime
60 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Jay Chapman
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2006)
After
Domestic Shorthair (2023)

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