Neal Brennan’s stand-up special, Neal Brennan: Crazy Good, was performed at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. In his third original comedy special, he riffs about crypto, social media, sex compliments, trauma being not a vibe, millionaire mindsets, and his ever evolving views on mental health and relationships.
Neal Brennan is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. In late 2022 Brennan launched the popular comedy podcast Blocks to support his previous special of the same name. You can also check out his half-hour feature on Comedians of the World. He was best known for co-creating and co-writing Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central with Dave Chappelle. But they were different styles of comedy so if you’re not a fan of Chappelle don’t knock this set off it’s worth your time.
Brennan starts his set straight away on the stage. No fancy introduction but arty and fun backdrop, green and virus-like. He starts by saying that he feels pretty good tonight which makes him very endearing someone you could easily be friends with.
He talks about using AI to create opening lines for comedy shows the example given by AI is hilarious: “Good evening pussies.” He’s quick with his jokes firing one after another not exhausting a story until we’re left thinking ‘how much can he milk this?’. I enjoyed his fiery energy and excellent comedic timing.
We all think comics would have perfected comedic timing but some do not have that skill honed but Brennen does! From an opening to a beat to a punchline he has nailed it and there is a beautiful flow to his set because of this. Some jokes need specific timing to have the right impact or they can be missed and flop; e.g., “I was dating a model. I was following model”. I laughed out loud I could see it coming but it still got me.
For a guy in his 50s Brennan’s set caters to all audiences. I was shocked when I googled his age as he’s got that Millennial, moaning, depressed but happy persona down.
There are so many entertaining sections in this hour but I think my favourite has to be his section on trauma flexing; it is incredibly funny. Not only is it relatable but the impressions of people who talk about trauma makes it pop, throughout the set he uses voices and some physicality to aid his jokes a lot of this is him leaning on his knees into the audience which makes you feel like he’s truly talking to, accusing, questioning you.
He makes some jokes about rape and provokes the cringy gasps from the audience when it comes to a pedophile joke. This is what Brits like me live for.
Demetri Deconstructed (recent stand up by Demetri Martin) had sections for an audience at home through editing where Brennan keeps his little stage face in corner of screen also works because its not alot but does break up flow for me.
Through further jokes about anxiety, documentaries, food, relationships and a bloody funny section on religion I laughed out loud through Neal Brennan: Crazy Good and the hour flies by because of his energetic performance. I hadn’t watched Neal Brennan before this series but I certainly will after.
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