The Best Stand-Up This Month Costs Nothing: 4 Free Specials on YouTube
Comedians keep releasing whole hours on YouTube for free, which is either the future of the business or a cry for help. Either way, here's what to watch.
By the Heckle Desk · · 1 min read
There was a time when a comedian waited his whole life for a network to give him an hour of television. Now he films it himself, puts it on YouTube, and gives it away, like a man handing out his own business cards at a funeral. It sounds desperate. It works beautifully.
Free specials have become one of the best deals in entertainment, mostly because the price is zero and the quality isn't. Here are four worth your time this month, two already up and two on the way. You can't beat free. People keep trying, but you can't.
- 01
Jeremiah Watkins: Crazy Pizza (YouTube, out now)
Watkins released this one himself rather than shop it around, which is the comedy equivalent of building your own house. It may lean a little, but it's yours. He's one of the most energetic performers working, the kind of man who seems to have had four coffees and a vision.
- 02
Are You Garbage: American Garbage (YouTube, out now)
Kevin Ryan and H. Foley, the podcast duo, made a crowd-work special, which means the audience wrote half of it and didn't get paid. That's the oldest trick in show business, and the audience still falls for it. They'll fall for it forever, God bless them.
- 03
Jack Assadourian Jr.: Mexican Armenian (YouTube, Oct. 16)
The title is the premise, and the premise is a family reunion where nobody agrees on the food. Every great comedian has a heritage to complain about. This man has two, which is a real competitive advantage.
- 04
Adam Conover: Big Divorce Energy (YouTube, Oct. 23)
Conover spent years explaining why everything you love is a lie. Now he's turned the investigation on his own divorce, which is the bravest research a man can do. It's free, so you'll have no one to blame but yourself, which is what he's been saying all along.