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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
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Trampoline in a Ditch

Kyle Kinane

YouTube · 2020 · 1 h 42 min

Surreal, self-effacing storytelling about aging and bad decisions.

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Kyle Kinane is at his best when he is taking the minor indignities of middle age and inflating them into surreal, logic-stretching crises. He spends a significant portion of this set grappling with the realization that he is now a forty-two-year-old man named “Kyle”—a name that carries a very specific, monster-energy-drinking, drywall-punching connotation that does not quite fit a guy who just wants to go camping without getting a hangover. Kinane has always had a gift for turning beer-koozie-wearing, blue-collar observations into surprisingly eloquent, dense paragraphs of prose, using his gravelly delivery to discuss his own physical decline and the bizarre eating habits of his father.

Originally captured at Comedy on State in Madison, Wisconsin, in March 2019, the material first reached the public as an audio album in 2020 before its video release in 2022. The production is refreshingly minimal, offering a fixed-camera view that mimics the actual club-going experience. This lack of flashy editing keeps the focus entirely on his writing, particularly his knack for inventing bizarre figurative language. When trying to describe his exhaustion, he casually drops the instant classic idiom of being “more tired than a big-dick bat,” proceeding to explain the precise evolutionary cardiovascular strain such a creature would face while flying.

The set also serves as a purge of older, long-form stories, including an extended, twenty-minute saga about getting banned from entering Canada. It is a loose, idiosyncratic hour and twenty-three minutes that finds room for segments on service dog etiquette, his mother’s bizarre cosmic beliefs, and the simple tragedy of a trampoline lying abandoned in a ditch.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Being a 42-year-old named Kyle

    Argues that there is no such thing as an old Kyle, imagining all Kyles dying young in free-climbing accidents wearing Patagonia windbreakers with Red Bull sending funeral flowers.

  2. Practicing moderation and searching for rock bottom

    Contrasts boring moderation with full sobriety or out-partying peers, describing his personal rock bottom as spending a sober Saturday night cleaning the bathroom with Tilex to Motley Crue.

  3. White privilege tied to the paranormal

    Uses a discussion of white privilege to pivot into a meditation on believing in the supernatural.

  4. Sexual harassment and emotional support animals

    Approaches sexual harassment strictly from his own lived experiences before evolving the joke into emotional support dogs.

  5. Coining the phrase 'more tired than a big-dick bat'

    Explores a crude yet eloquent novel idiom describing extreme exhaustion.

  6. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Getting kicked out of Canada and stories about his parents closer

    Detailed storytelling routines reflecting on border encounters and aging parents.

How it plays

Tone
Warm, idiosyncratic, and observational with darker, vulnerable, and biting undertones.
On stage
A self-dubbed 'aging partier' with a 'rock-tumbler voice', crude yet eloquent, self-deprecating, and combining world-weary wisdom with whimsical delight.
Pace
High-energy with flights of fancy leaping from reality into the absurd.
About
aging and mortality, moderation vs. partying, white privilege, sexual harassment, aging parents, everyday absurdities

What the critics said

Critically praised for Kinane's masterful storytelling, refined comedic voice, and mindful handling of topics like race and sexual harassment, though reviewers noted the unusual tacked-on structure of the bonus material and minimalist single-camera video production.

In the room: Supportive and engaged Midwest comedy club crowd.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: pastemagazine.com, allmusic.com, meister.tv, vulture.com, thecomedybureau.com, letterboxd.com, en.wikipedia.org, npr.org.

Backstory

Taped in March 2019 and released in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The special's title was inspired by a chance encounter with a Sheboygan police scanner.

Details

Released
Taped
2019, Comedy On State, Madison
Runtime
1 h 42 min
Where
YouTube
Director
CJ Cook
Topics
Before
The Standups (2018)
After
Shocks & Struts (2023)

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