Todays Specials
All jokes aside, stand-up is getting artful onscreen.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
What if comedy specials didnt have to be funny to be good?
Your mind is blown right now, I know.
Someones good is always someone elses terrible.
(Infomercial voice:) There has to be a better way!
I dont know, its a kids party!
you say, standing in the aisle looking at dozens of paper plate options.
It doesnt matter, just pick one!
The theme is unicorns!
Get the pink glittery plates and the rainbow napkins.
So what does this look like in a comedy-special context?
What do you want this comedy special to feel like?
Is this comedy special going to feel immense, celebratory, like a career culmination?
Is the comedy special going to feel casual, loose, undemanding?
That decision about mood filters down into everything from clothing to backdrop to the angle of the close shots.
Maybe its going to feel like a cabaret.
Maybe its going to be one of those cancel-culture, free-speech, angry-dude specials.
Those do not have to have plug-and-play comedians-on-a-stage-somewhere designs!
Everything flows from that first articulation about what the special should feel like.
How much money do you have to make that happen?
Ah, yes, here comes the reality.
Its also the same problem that faces all art that isnt, apparently, season four ofStranger Things.
(Someone like do a special in the Temple of Dendur.
I know they rent that thing out for parties.)
There are two questions buried in this fairly straightforward idea.
The first is about what kind of venue the special will be in.
Theaters have a different weight and scale than comedy clubs.
Some theaters look fancier than others; some small theaters may communicate intimacy better than a club-size space.
The other question implicit in where is more about the audience.
How many tapings?
Will the special be edited together from only one show or from several performances?
This stuff is vital, but it often comes down to who gets hired to create this production.
will likely mean theres little visual distinction between this and dozens of other specials.
Maybe thats the goal!
Steven Brills direction ofCat CohensThe Twist … ?
Shes Gorgeouscaptures Cohens tone by emphasizing close-up shots that are sometimes in profile or even from behind the piano.
Lets talk about the audience.
The question of the audience comes up often at many decision points.
Consider the audience-reaction shot.
But the audience-reaction shot can so easily go awry.
They can appear self-congratulatory (Look at this woman weeping with laughter!)
There are other options.
How is this going to get edited?
Editing can change everything.
What are you going to do with the first 90 seconds?
Maybe you cant control any of that because this is a smaller production.
So do you come and wave?
Do you stride onstage and do a little dance?
Do you thank people up top or do a shout-out to this particular city or begin by berating them?
What will you wear?
This is a nightmare of a question.
TheJohn Mulaney formal-suit optionis one way to go.
TheMichael Che very fancy hoodieis another possibility.
There is a storied history of comedians performing inleathersuits.
Youll notice those are all male examples, though.
(Skinny or wide?)
(Black or blue?)
Professional but not a waitress?
Casual but not sloppy?
Whichjumpsuitsays Im pulled together but in a relatable way?
But how can you makethathappen?
I have no advice here.
Will there be a stool?
Symbolically, this decision can stand in for a million other ones.
Lav mic or stand mic?
How elaborate is the set?
Are you a PowerPoint Slides comedian?
How much of the material is act-outs?
Some comedianssit; some do not.
Some comedianshumptheir stools; some use them astables.
If everything else is beyond your control, let the stool be the line in the sand.
If everything else fails, theres always stools.
