Review of the week: John Early
“An entire generation of people pretending to hate the word moist”
I’m going to start a new little feature for this newsletter where I review something every week. It might be a movie, or a TV show, or a tasty little beverage, or an airplane. In a previous era of my life, when I worked at an alt-weekly, I reviewed stuff all the time and I loved it, and I think I was good at it. I wrote weekly movie reviews for the paper, but I also wrote reviews of all kinds of random stuff; musicals, restaurants, a GetGo sandwich, an adult Capri Sun.
I realized that I’ve missed this form of writing, both because I loved the format of reviews and because they were fun, and there is so little fun in writing anymore. I mean that in the sense that every website I used to go to to read something funny or weird is now deceased, and there’s no foreseeable way for me to get a job that gives me the creative freedom I used to have.
I will try to do this weekly, or maybe biweekly is a more realistic goal.
First up is John Early’s stand-up special “Now More Than Ever.”
My parents (hi!) have developed the belief that I hate stand-up because they watch every Netflix stand-up special ever released, and while I loved watching stand-up as a teen, I severely petered off in adulthood. Now I’ll usually only watch it if it’s a comedian I know I like already.
First of all, there are way more stand-ups than there used to be, and way more platforms (duh), but I also think I just soured on the format after so many of the most successful and famous comedians have revealed themselves to be perverts or that they hate trans people. I mean, I was obsessed with Louis CK in high school. It’s rough out there!
Anyway! John Early is a comedian I’ve seen here and there, mostly in bit roles on shows or, recently, in his comedy special with Kate Berlant, “Would it kill you to laugh?” (which I also recommend). Early’s new special is a hybrid of stand-up, mockumentary, and live band karaoke. It doesn’t make sense and yet somehow it works.
Early first steps on stage, not with an awkward first joke that accompanies all stand-up routines (just standing in front of strangers and being like “I’m going to begin saying jokes to you now), but Instead, with a performance of the R&B song “Oops (Oh My)” with a full band. He does this a few times throughout the show – just breaking out into cover songs – but somehow, it works because the singing is necessary to make the mockumentary part of the special work. Also, his Britney Spears impression is famous. Early’s mockumentary character is an archetype of the music documentary genre, a moody lead singer with an outsized ego and a habit of mild sexual harassment.
The special peaks when Early mocks the most annoying parts of millennial language, like his joke about “an entire generation of people pretending to hate the word moist” or the patronizing and humiliating tone of Postmates ads promising that actually, you don’t have to put pants on to get dinner.
Sometimes stand-up can feel out of date, even in its attempts to be relatable, like talking about how we all look at our phones so much or whatever. It’s like yeah, we know, but what about it? Whereas Early knows that sure, we’re on our phones a lot, but the greater issue is the way its affected language, like modern addiction to hyperbole (“we should be tried at the Hague.”)
Anyway, if you don’t watch this special, I will throw myself into the sea.