Tag: New York comedy

Master Class in Crowd Work

Todd Barry is a touring, headlining comic who most people know as “that comic guy from Louie.” He has a very flat, deadpan delivery but he does it better than most people I’ve heard. He sounds super sarcastic and a little like me but even drier, so maybe that’s partly why I like him.

His delivery is what makes his crowd work so impressive to me. With such a flat delivery it forces the conversation to be funny because of what Barry says and discovers. The crowd work really has content. Barry isn’t just being silly on stage, he’s quick and intuitive.

Speaking of Louie, Louis CK actually released Todd Barry: The Crowd Work Tour on his website for $5. You can also find it on Netflix. Or, I found it on YouTube as well. I’ll link that below, but who knows when it will disappear! Whoever uploaded the video to YouTube also put “Best Comedian Ever” in the title of the video, so take that as you will.

Hannibal Buress’s Unemployable Pilot Released

Way back when, Comedy Central ordered a pilot of Hannibal Buress’s show Unemployable. It was never picked up. Hannibal was recently allowed to release the episode.

The premise is that Hannibal has never had a job other than comedy before, so he tries out a bunch of odd jobs to see how truly unemployable he is. Sort of like Dirty Jobs, but less dirty and more funny. Honestly, I think the show could be better given Hannibal’s awesome sense of humor. It doesn’t really play to his strengths and I can see why Comedy Central didn’t pick it up. But it is a fun 20 minutes with some funny editing. People love Hannibal. And he’s from Chicago, like me! Check it out!