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.

My personal evaluation: Nate Bargaze - Good Fortune Feimster - Good Deon Cole - Very Good Nikki Glaser - Ok Beth Sterling - Not Good Dan Soder - Not Good Gina Yashere - Good Kyle Kinane - Good Rachel Finestein - Not Good Brent Moran - Not Good Aparnan Nancheria - Very Good

I laughed thinking up the punchlines to their set ups but they were generally awful. The audience was almost as bored as I was. A really lifeless show.

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.