SXSW Comedy with W. Kamau Bell

I was so happy to see a program like this come back around and give comedy some well deserved attention and make the experience so pretty and dynamic once again. As much as I love the solo headliner hours there's something really spectacular about getting the morsels and tight sets from a spread of comics that all feed off each other's material, like Beth Stelling and Mark Normand's little trade off in this that was such a great call back to me! The flow makes it feel so engaging and the level of care that was put into it was so reassuring to see as a die hard comedy nerd. I'm tired of the same stale, stationary cameras that don't really make watching the performance feel as engaging as it can be and the cutaways are a nice touch to show off the peculiarities of the festival. This held my attention a lot better than most other specials. It feels like the format of specials are maturing with this new comedy boom right now and I'm glad to see the showcase format being a part of that.