Chris D'Elia: No Pain

I want to say first that I believe D'elia may be one of the funniest people alive in off the cuff, conversational comedy. As a podcast guest and on Instagram, he is probably in my top five comedians. This is why it pains me to write this review, but I think he needs to hear this criticism in order to level up in the stand up game. The reality is that the podcasting circle of comedians will always attract an audience at shows, because they have become personalities. Therefore, the true and honest feedback they will get about the art and craft of stand up will be limited.

Chris' special is unwatchable. D'elia is using the same strange, frat boy voice in his latest special than he did in his first. There has been no evolution. No relaxing into it. It sounds very forced, and honestly the jokes are pretty hacky. I can't for the life of me understand why he doesn't try to bring his real life persona onto the stage. It seems like he is actively targeting the teenage market, which is fine, but he has the potential to be so much more. Do yourself a favour, get off Netflix and download Louis CK's latest special or find an old copy of Colin Quinn's stuff. Or go check out the comics coming out of the UK and Ireland, who seem to be on a much higher level than the LA comedy scene.