Robbie Praw explains his approach to buying stand-up specials for the streamer.
Todays Specials
All jokes aside, stand-up is getting artful onscreen.
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The person largely responsible for all of this is Robbie Praw, whomNetflix hired in early 2016.
Last month, he was promoted to vice-president of stand-up and comedy formats, officially becoming Netflixs No.
Lets start with the festival.
And it did well enough that youre like, Well do this next year?I dont know.
We certainly have interest in doing different things live in the future.
What we do in stand-up at Netflix is very, very special.
We work with most of the big names.
When you started at Netflix, you all declared, Were going to release a special every week.
There werent a ton of huge comedy specials when you started.
Over the years, our members who might otherwise not have been big stand-up fans found stand-up.
I think leaning into a lot of different voices introduced people to stand-up for the first time.
Can you confirm that?People do watch our specials often all the way through.
Sometimes you like a shorter version of something.
Were striving to do both.
Weve now entered the Dave Chappelle portion of the interview.Oh, great.
Chris Rock has released five hours in his entire career.
Did you think all of Chappelles hours were ready to release?
His specials have been extremely well received.
I mean, I dont know how many Emmys, Grammys … he got theMark Twain award.
Our members both love his specials and watch them in big numbers.
Complete his specials in big numbers.
He has some of the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores when his specials are released.
He later said that comment was anoversimplification.Do you think content on screen causes real-world harm?We would never … That being said, content of all kinds elicits reactions and thats why we all love art.
This is a special that, obviously, had a lot of reactions to it.
Im proud that we stood by that.
Netflix has 15 politically incorrect stand-up subcategories like Cynical Politically Incorrect, European Politically Incorrect, and Irreverent.
Why the dedication to this?I dont think we have any dedication to that.
We have comedy for everybody, and certainly some stand-up comedy is on that bleeding edge.
But we have tons of different types of specials in any given week.
We have a special coming out from different artists that I dont think would be categorized in that way.
Its a testament to our members and people generally having different tastes; thats what that is.
You dont feel like youve been doing slightly more in that area?I dont think so.
This is not to be like, How dare you do it at all?
!No no no no, Im not taking it that way.
Certainly, some comedy falls in that lane, but I wouldnt say thats a specific concentration.
Four years ago,Jason Zinoman asked you this, but he was told you couldnt answer it.
Theres one very famous comedian you all used to work with named Louis C.K.
If he was interested, would you buy his next …Sorry, could you spell that?
SoCas in C,Kas in K.Oh, okay.
Cool, cool, cool.
Yeah, I mean, we have no plans to work with Louis right now.
Every situation is different, and we do an appropriate amount of due diligence on making some decisions.
We try not to be reactive.
I mean, generally, first things first: Were for creative expression.
That happens across the board on every single selection on the slate.
You love when people love something.
Its hard to define, and thats something that was unquestionable aboutInside: People loved it.
Its one of my favorite things that weve ever put out.
Years ago, Chris Rock said a lot of specials arent special anymore.
He said this years before you even got this job.
He calls them okays.He calls them normals.
I was about to give you that line.
Yeah, I know.
I carve out the answers so you dont repeat yourself.
But youve said stand-up is ideally a live art form hence the festival.
Thats usually the place it starts.
But its not really a process that I feel like we own.
Its really very artist-driven.
Ronny Chieng shooting hislast specialin that restaurant thats not something that we suggested.
Somewhere around Christmastime, he had sent me around 20 minutes of it.
Some of it didnt even end up in the piece.
But he was genuinely working on it like it comes across for two years.
Ive been working with Bo since he was 17 and I was 27 at Just for Laughs.
I think hes one of the most special artists in the world.
We have 12 specials or something coming out.
Can you speak to anything you know that they love?Our members love Gabriel Iglesias.
They certainly love Bo Burnham.
They love Dave Chappelle.
They love John Mulaney.
Youre naming famous comedians.
[Laughs.][Laughs.]
No, I know.
That has always been part of the lifeblood.
Ali Wong was the first key example of that.
They typically take some time to figure out.
I think that we have great empathy in this space.
Comedy has always had a hard time translating internationally.
But the core audience for stand-up, typically, is more geographically based.
Recently, I read that Netflix isinterested in live-streaming technology.
But its definitely early days on that conversation.
Can you give any broad strokes of what the future holds for the stand-up special?
What you might like to see more or less of?My answers lame but … funny first.
Thats part of the joy of doing this live thing.
Seeing that in person again was very special.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
