I hate crowd participation. You know, when you’re in the audience and you can’t just sit there and enjoy it. No, they have to try to make you join in. I’ll clap along when I want to, thank you very much. And please don’t hold the mic out for the crowd to sing. I came to watch you perform, not hear the out-of-tune screeching of my fellow gig-goers.
My distaste for involuntary involvement is taken to a whole new level when it comes to stand-up. I don’t want to be the person who gets picked on by the comedian onstage, my work life, relationship or city of origin turned into one-liners. All of which means I’m more likely to enjoy stand-up on TV these days than braving the audience in a theatre.
And there are plenty of chances to do just that, with specials by the world’s top comedians and a raft of up-and-comers available on demand. Even better, you can dip in and out of them without a) breaking the bank or b) the fear of being humiliated from the stage as you slink out of the venue. Don’t like one comedian’s routine? There are plenty more to check out, and I’m not just talking about the 47 in Netflix’s Comedians of the World.
Also on Netflix right now is Right Here, Around the Corner, the first comedy special from Ray Romano in decades. Not being a particular fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, I would never have considered watching a performance by that sitcom’s star, but his gig at the club where he started his career is the type of gentle comedy that makes for easy viewing.
Another man not high on my list of must-see comedians is Ken Jeong, who I once described as the worst thing about Community – he’s definitely an acquired taste. But since the star of The Hangover franchise was trying something new – You Complete Me, Ho (on Netflix now) is his first stand-up special – I thought I’d do the same. And I laughed. A lot. Maybe I like Ken Jeong, just not the characters he’s best known for.
Watching stand-up on TV also allows you to revisit routines over and over, like Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette (on Netflix now), which has turned the local comedian into a global phenomenon. Unless you’re a stand-up groupie, it’s unlikely you’d return to see a show more than once live, but you can enjoy them as often as you want in the comfort of your own lounge room, catching the jokes you missed the first time around or, in the case of Nanette, whenever you want to be taken on an emotional journey.
It’s not just streaming giant Netflix bringing the laughs direct to people’s homes. ABC has an entire comedy channel, while iView contains stand-up specials like the 2018 Melbourne Comedy Festival – incredibly handy for those interstate. So while sitting on my couch might not have quite the same atmosphere as a comedy venue, I’m fine with that. •
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