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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · 800 Pound Gorilla Media

Wild, Happy & Free

Ian Fidance

YouTube · 2024 · 51 min

A manic, high-energy hour of chaotic stand-up and oversharing.

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Ian Fidance brings a relentlessly hyperactive, physical energy to the stage, combining manic cheerfulness with deeply personal disclosures about sexuality and mental health. Rather than relying on rigid setups, he treats the performance like an extension of his chaotic podcast presence, using frantic pacing and expressive physicality. He leans heavily into his bisexual identity, sobriety, and a general enthusiasm for topics that often make mainstream audiences uncomfortable, such as the nuances of straight male behavior and dating trans women.

Filmed at The Cutting Room in New York City, this 2024 debut arrived as a self-funded project released on YouTube. At this point in his career, Fidance was a fixture of the New York club circuit, largely propelled by guest spots on popular comedy podcasts and his own show, Bein’ Ian with Jordan. The hour features bits about surviving bipolar disorder, his distinct mustache, and the absurdity of lifestyle mantras like “Live, Laugh, Love.”

While the performance successfully translates his signature chaotic charm to a formal stand-up format, it remains polarizing. Longtime listeners appreciate the unfiltered, live feel of the set, while critics sometimes find his loud, high-octane delivery exhausting over the course of fifty minutes.

The set list

2 bits

  1. Having a mustache and attracting specific types of attention

    Fidance engages in crowdwork about mustaches, joking that girls like them due to daddy issues while he has one due to mommy issues, and jokes that he looks like he listens to porn on vinyl.

  2. Dating and breaking up with a Muslim woman

    Fidance jokes that he discovered he was Jewish through a 23andMe test while dating a Muslim woman, comparing their failed relationship to the two-state solution and calling her his 'little jihadi with the body'.

How it plays

Tone
Manic, silly, self-deprecating, and explicitly vulnerable.
On stage
High-energy, hyperactive, chaotic, and intensely self-deprecating; described as an 'intense girlfriend who thinks being loud and random is funny' and a 'gay Jewish Steve-o'.
Pace
Rapid-fire, frantic, all-gas-no-brakes energy; compared by one viewer to the tone, pace, and rhythm of a panic attack.
About
Mustaches and sex appeal, Breakups and dating, Mommy and daddy issues, 23andMe and Jewish heritage, Israel-Palestine conflict, Mental health and medication

What the critics said

Viewers are polarized by his over-the-top, manic pacing, finding his hyperactive delivery either endearing and hilarious or insufferable.

In the room: Lively and responsive club crowd reacting to fast-paced crowd banter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: letterboxd.com, standupd.com, moviefone.com, justthecast.com, mundanemag.com, ianfidance.com.

Backstory

Fidance, a New York-based comic and co-host of the 'Bein' Ian with Jordan' podcast, draws on personal experiences including recent breakups, discovering Jewish ancestry via 23andMe, and living medicated with mental health struggles.

Details

Released
Taped
The Cutting Room, New York City
Runtime
51 min
Where
YouTube
Director
James Webb
Topics

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