Colin Quinn: Red State Blue State

A Colin Quinn stand-up comedy special filmed in 2019. Quinn looks at the state of politics in the US and how it got to this.

I've been a fan of Colin Quinn since his Tough Crowd years and love his mix of cynical humour and astute observations. This comedy special channels these qualities as he comments on US politics and the US in general.

Some great put-downs and clever, astute commentary. Sometimes the observations are so accurate this feels more like a lecture than a comedy routine. He manages to do this without being biased in favour of any political party, making for an engaging experience.

Some jokes miss the mark though. That was always the one problem with Tough Crowd: the observations can be so clever or so many degrees separated from the topic that they aren't funny. It's the risk of trying to be so topical though. Some of the jokes are absolute zingers though, making up for this.

I wrote this when Colin Quinn did his New York Experience show-Colin Quinn is super smart. He is also a very good stand up comedian. This intelligent and historically supported special looks at the origins and the current state of political division in the United States in the 21st Century. He does a great job of articulating, using interesting language, the problem. He doesn't;t do a great job of proposing a solution, but I am not sure that is his job. As a comedian it is his job to make us think and he really, really does that. I think it is clear he leans left, but there is no apparent hate, or contempt for the Right. His contempt is equal for ideologues. This one is very good.

This guy is funny. He does tell it like it is. Today we all hide behind a keyboard, here I am, and put our 2 cents in. It's good to laugh at life and ourselves. If we don't laugh we will drop to our knees and give up. So laugh out loud and at each other because it's just funny!

This is a really well written and performed comedic meditation on the current condition of the United States. I've watched a lot of Quinn over the years and I am pretty sure this is the best thing he's done.

His conclusions that it's all basic coming to an end is depressing and I'm not convinced he's right about that, but he's right about the current state of things.

Lots of really clever observations here and his take-down of all 50 states, one-by-one is particularly memorable.

If you're launching into this expecting a rehash of Quinn's 2016 'The New York Story', or a generic, stale stand-up routine, you might be a bit disappointed. If you're ready to be entertained by one of the greatest American humorists alive, please hit 'play' and enjoy.