The Standups

This is how I found Beth Stelling and Nikki Glaser. I'm a huge fan of stand up comedy and now my favorite comedian is Beth Stelling. This program is great, I love that they brought amazing comedians together to perform a fantastic show. I wish I could've seen it live.

With perhaps the exception of Nikki Glasser, the 6 comics in this series are somewhat unknown. They certainly don't have any big shows coming to Australia any time soon. Thankfully, Netflix is able to provide a platform for them to be globally broadcast with ease. While some of the material fell a bit flat at times, with each comic having some lows to their set, there were also some great high points.

One of the best aspects of this series was that it gave just a taste of each comic - there was no major commitment to a comic that the viewer didn't know. Usually, I would stick to the safe sets of comics I know well and I know I will enjoy, particularly if I am about to lock in for an hour long special. Cutting them each down closer to the 30-minute mark made each episode a safe bet. If it wasn't that funny, at least it was only short, and the next is guaranteed to be a whole new experience.

For me, Deon Cole was the best of the comics on the show, with his set in episode 3 being a stand-out-stand-up performance. The way he structured his set (you'll see) was, while not incredibly inventive, a fun way to separate himself from the pack.While they all needed a little polishing, it is definitely worthwhile to watch what will definitely be the early days of some long careers for these comics.

At first, this show feels like an up-and-coming comics showcase. The first episode felt pretty strong with Nate Bargatze. But in later episodes, I found myself 20-30 minutes into the show, quitting the episode and skipping to the next one. I pretty much did that with the rest of them. Unfortunately, most of these lesser known comedians appear to be unknown for pretty good reason. It felt like they didn't really have much in the way of jokes to tell, but hoped somehow talking about themselves would be hilarious. It is almost cringey watching these mediocre personalities dying in front of a huge, live audience, with nary a chuckle.

Nate Bargatze has the funniest set so it's good this thing starts with him. Dan Soder is good too.

Dusty Slay was amazing, I've never heard of him but he really shined here. I just wish he didn't say "we're having a good time" after each sentence and was more confident.

Brent Morin's set is solid too. Too bad he has this typical beta male comic quality of not holding women accountable for leaving him alone in NYC but blaming only himself - that story was a bit sad and pathetic, even if pretty entertaining and uplifting at first.

Mark Normand is a good comic too, but he's also such a female-pandering beta now, that his skills are kind of wasted and laugher is replaced with cringe. Still one of the best "underground" comics tho. But wow. Tone it down a bit, mr. Try hard.

Nikki Glaser is good too, and ironically her set here is funnier than her actual full special on Netflix, because here she actually talks about other stuff besides her vaj... Here she tackles such profound subjects like farting.. But yeah... Like the rest - she has her moments and is not bad.

I don't know the rest of these people and clearly there's a reason for it - they're not funny or talented. I think I've seen Fortune Feimster on Rogan and she seemed cool and promising, but she ain't on stage...

Still, this has a few decent comics with decent sets - so it's worth a watch. They're probably better than most of the "comics" netflix is peddling on the frontpage.

Nate killed it and I'm happy he was first because it made me interested to watch a few of the others. 10/10 because of Nate. 6/10 for the rest as a whole.