Andy Daly Mines Art From Hack-Comedy Criticism

2 weeks ago 11

By John Roy, comedian and pop-culture writer

Daly performing successful 2008. Photo: Liezl Estipona

I volition ne'er hide erstwhile I archetypal heard Andy Daly’s acceptable from 2006’s Comedy Death-Ray album. I was fortunate capable to beryllium doing regular nine sets successful Los Angeles, but speech from 5 minutes connected racism that earned maine a career, my enactment didn’t look overmuch antithetic from immoderate of the different 5 oregon truthful achromatic antheral comics who taped Comedy Central’s Premium Blend that twelvemonth successful the aforesaid shiny, black, pointy-collared H&M garment I wore. The treble Death-Ray CD, besides released by Comedy Central, featured performers connected Scott Aukerman and B.J. Porter’s play amusement successful a crumbling, 99-seat East Hollywood theater, including Mindy Kaling, Dan Mintz, and 16 much “alternative comedy” acts. The country was a absorption to the slick, lifeless, cadence-driven bloviating that excessively often dominated the drama airwaves, which I feared my enactment was opening to resemble.

Daly’s acceptable dynamited each presumption I had astir what could enactment onstage. I had nary thought that audiences savvy, attentive, and generous capable to admit a spot similar this existed. I knew close then: It was imaginable to interruption retired of the shiny-black-shirt brigade, and this theatre is wherever I could bash it.

Listen to “Andy Daly” now. The bit’s archetypal YouTube remark is “God bless the assemblage for being 100% connected committee close from the beginning.”

Todd Glass erstwhile said to maine that Aukerman and Porter’s Death-Ray audience “treated drama similar it’s opera.” So galore words person been written and truthful overmuch podcast-studio java drained praising the worth of drunk, tough, suffer-no-bullshit late-show comedy-club audiences to hone comedians’ instincts, chopped the abdominous from their bits, and thicken their skins, but not astir capable vigor is spent praising engaged audiences that thin successful to drawback the comic’s each word. Comedians cognize that determination is simply a show level lone the hottest crowds tin unlock, a definite benignant of assemblage enactment that empowers them into a benignant of stand-up Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z. Stone-faced curmudgeons and six-beer hecklers mightiness toughen a comic up, but they volition ne'er alteration the instauration of a masterpiece similar “Andy Daly.”

Daly begins his acceptable with what is ostensibly a question — “How’s everybody doing tonight!?” — but delivers it arsenic a declarative sentence, making wide with the down inflection connected “tonight” that helium has nary involvement successful really proceeding immoderate answers; it’s purely perfunctory, insincere stand-up patter. Daly’s quality sounds someway similar nary circumstantial comic and each of them astatine once. His broadcaster’s diction and heightened yet intelligibly feigned emotion bring to caput a parade of mediocre hacks from 1950 to the present. Like the champion hacks, he’s fun, likable, playful, polished, energetic, engaging, and commanding. Daly isn’t conscionable making amusive of this benignant of stand-up — he’s nailing it.

“I gotta archer ya, I don’t know, I don’t know, you know?” Daly continues. “All this worldly that’s going connected successful the satellite today, it’s like, ‘Hello!’” It’s an absurd, banal, and inadequate mode to respond to thing “going connected successful the world” astatine that time, peculiarly the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars that hung implicit everything, and it earns Daly his archetypal laughter astatine 0:18.

This is each it takes for the savvy Death-Ray assemblage to recognize that this is simply a spot and strap successful for the ride. (If you don’t find this impressive, work the remainder of the YouTube comments and spot however galore radical inactive don’t get it aft watching the full thing.) “Excuse me, I didn’t motion disconnected connected that!” Daly says incredulously. “I mean, travel on! If that’s the mode it’s gonna be, nary thank you!” Each condemnation is much of a trivialization of the existent nationalist infinitesimal than before, demonstrating however utterly inadequate this benignant of drama had go for addressing the era’s reality.

Skipping the portion wherever an existent comic would springiness an illustration of what’s bothering them, Daly presses on. “It’s truly nuts! You got guys implicit present going, ‘Hey what’s the deal?’” helium says for his archetypal applause break. The assemblage recognizes the “no specifics” crippled he’s acceptable up and wants more. “You got guys implicit present going, ‘Hey, what bash you think?’” Daly continues. “And I’m implicit present going, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Knock it off!’”

Daly hits each “whoa” bigger than the last, selling “knock it off!” similar it’s disposable connected T-shirts, babe onesies, and brew cozies aft the show. Beyond nailing the hack comic’s forced cadence and transparent insincerity, Daly besides perfectly encapsulates their worldview. Taking his words astatine look value, Daly’s quality feels that nowadays immoderate radical are questioning things, and that alarms him capable to privation them to unopen up. It’s hard not to perceive successful this rant the fearful halfway of galore a sincere “anti-woke” spot successful our ain time. He serves up the further merch-worthy catchphrases “okay, enough!” and “thank you precise much, but nary convey you!” to further laughter, and by the clip helium says “I didn’t get that memo!” astatine 1:25, 1 assemblage subordinate is cackling uncontrollably for ten-second stretches similar a unfortunate of Joker state successful a Batman cartoon.

Daly piles 1 meaningless, rhythm-reinforcing Evening astatine the Improv cliché connected different until, astatine 1:37, helium makes it look similar we whitethorn yet get a circumstantial premise retired of his character. When helium manages to instrumentality to the crippled with “hey, I got an idea,” the assemblage applauds for 8 seconds, resuming 3 much times betwixt 2:27’s “here’s the deal” and the instrumentality of “knock it off!” astatine 2:43.

After managing to execute stand-up for 2 minutes and 50 seconds without erstwhile mentioning a azygous object, issue, oregon quality being, Daly’s self-aware “what other is going on?” earns a 15-second eruption of applause. It’s the closest helium ever gets to winking astatine the assemblage and rewarding them for being onto his tricks. When helium starts different vague spot a 2nd later, they applaud again, anxious and excited to revisit the crippled present that they’re successful connected it. Daly’s first, truncated F-bomb astatine 3:35 gets different laugh, exposing superfluous curse words for the meaningless laugh-juicer they had go by the cablegram era. Then Daly shouts, “What is it, 1991?!” The assemblage howls. Finally Daly gives them an insanely circumstantial item that inactive manages to adhd nary discourse whatsoever.

Two decades removed from its taste context, “alternative comedy” is arsenic meaningless a word arsenic “alternative music.” But the Death-Ray country had a valid critique of the drama of the era, and “Andy Daly” presents the full case. It’s a elephantine mediate digit to everything alternate drama recovered artistically unacceptable that’s comic capable successful its ain close to propulsion a knowledgeable assemblage into involuntary spasms of laughter that spell connected for fractional a infinitesimal astatine a time. Hearing it successful 2006 was similar throwing a achromatic airy connected each the stale, rote elements of my ain act. Since then, whenever I get the queasy feeling that a spot of excavation is sliding into shiny-black-shirt hackery, I’m reprimanded from the backmost of my caput by the bid of a phantom Andy Daly, yelling, “Knock it off!”