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I fucking loved it. I thought it was his best show yet – because it showed him being more comfortable with concepts instead of bits.
What it reminded me of is Bill Cosby’s “Himself”. Makes me think he recently went back and re-watched that special. And thought “yeah.. I like that vibe. I wanna try that vibe for awhile”. Maybe not literally – but he at least had a similar mindset, that his audience was attentive enough to handle it and he was comfortable enough to explore it. It seems to be no accident that he’s mentioned “Himself” a few times in recent interviews.
When you’re a younger comic, you have to think in 10 minute increments (or less). At the level Louis is at, he does 30+ minutes as a drop-in set at the Improv, and performs 60+ minutes at huge theatres several times a month.
If you took any one of those chunks out of this special and threw it into a standard 8-10 minute act, it would fall flat without context of the person performing it and the material that surrounded it.
I’ve read some early reviews in various forums where people downplayed it in comparison to some of his earlier work, and I can’t help but feel like their criticism is related to “quotables”. That’s my theory for how Dane Cook got so fucking enormous so quick. You could quote every line he spoke. This recent Louis special is about an experience and it’s hard to pick out a line to throw around to your friends. It’s all or nothing — you take it all in as a whole piece, or you miss out entirely.
It’s… (fuck I don’t want to write this) … mature.
I love it when comedians evolve. If they stay along the same course, with the same voice, I feel like they become parodies of themselves and they’re basically hack comics riding the wave of their formerly-respected selves.
We’re watching an artist in their prime right now, riding the wave of success after traveling a very tough and dirty road. It’s pretty awesome.
