Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life

Brett Goldstein is definitely better suited to playing the moody handsome guy in comedies like Ted Lasso. Whilst his stand up wasn't awful, I laughed out loud in a few places, most of the jokes were "I'm British and America is strange, please laugh with me". He also did a few self deprecating jokes and briefly talked about his time on Ted Lasso. Then there was a strange bit at the end with some puppets that made absolutely zero sense other than he had a brief story about his time on Sesame Street.

So, if you're into that you'll enjoy it, just don't expect to be crying with laughter the whole time.

I know I'm probably in the minority that didn't get 'Ted Lasso'. I tried, but despite the efforts of Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham and Brendan Hunt, it was let down by awful scripts and the fact that no-one apart from the aforementioned could act. 'Shrinking' is a clever, witty and charming show, both thoughtful and thought-provoking, that was immeasurably diminished by the awful wooden 'acting' of Goldstein. Now you're probably wondering why I tuned in to Goldstein's stand up show. He must be good at something, right? Wrong. His stand up is about as funny as lung cancer, but what do I know, people pay to watch this bilge.

The genius of this special is that it seems like he has not been at this a long time, so you let your guard down ... The, BOOM! A vicious rib-hit of comedy! History will hopefully remember this as a great special. I mean, dude had imaginary friend puppets as a callback to his best day of his life, reminding you of a tight act. Bravo! I loved it and I was entertained as could be! I realize that perhaps I'm just a simple guy, but I've seen great standup and loved it. I know bad standup. This is so refreshing - yes, refreshing! The puppets got me. I also want to look up his mom! Superb special by HBO! I'll pay for more.

This was like a person deciding to do his first open mic night at a comedy show because of the pressure of his friends to get up there and give it a try. It fails miserably. Not a single funny moment throughout the entire hour. It just dragged on, while I waited for a good moment to arrive. The jokes were unoriginal. There was nothing creative or unique about it. Just a British guy pointing out the strange aspects of America, throw in a few self deprecating reflections, add a little sex, loop back around to a recurring theme that gets you minimal laughs. There are so many good, original, hilarious comics out there. This is undeniably not one of them.

Brett Goldstein is an engaging, handsome and charismatic performer. This special had good pacing and some good jokes. If you like stand up, you'll find things to like in this stand up special. Overall I was amused and laughed out loud twice.

I cannot score higher because the delivery of the jokes felt really awkward. Typically comics act as if they are telling the audience the jokes organically and naturally. This performance felt like a dress rehearsal that perhaps should not have been filmed. I don't know if this is his style or if he was just nervous. I did find this element to be distracting.