Getting Intimate with Rob Delaney – ‘Live at the Bowery Ballroom’
Nate Rankin | Sep 07, 2012 | Comments 2
Rob Delaney is the most intimate comedian I have ever seen perform. That is because with Rob absolutely NOTHING is off limits; not the vivid portrayal of he and his wife conceiving their son, not the time he sprayed two consecutive bowel movements somewhere in the back alleys of Hollywood while on a morning jog, and certainly not the time he produced a semen sample for his doctor in the adjacent parking lot.
No, Delaney wants to invite you into the deepest and most intimate moments in his life, make you coffee, give you a backrub and then undress you slowly with his teeth.
Now if you don’t know who Rob Delaney is then you’re a terrible person. The Overlord of Twitter/Mitt Romney Nemesis became famous for his raunchy and outrageous 140 character blurbs starting back in 2009. Now he has a stand-up comedy special entitled Live at the Bowery Ballroom for sale on his website for $5, continuing the trend a la Louis C.K, Aziz Ansari and Jim Gaffigan.
If you’re familiar with Rob’s Twitter feed or Vice Column then this special will be the long awaited voice to those thoughts you’ve always wanted to hear. That’s not to say Delaney is up on stage reading tweets. The humor is similar but the comedy is starkly different. Delaney uses long form stories and anecdotes from his own life.
One recurring trope in Delaney’s set has to do with sex and masturbation. Early in the show he reflects on how easy it is to find porn compared to when he was a kid: “When I was younger…I had to like get a calling card and call a friend’s older brother at college in Pennsylvania and he would send a carrier pigeon telling me where he had buried an old dirty Playboy magazine and I would dig it up with a map and be like, ‘I think that’s a boob.’”
Delaney also spends a fair amount of time talking about religion, most specifically in regards to the fact that he consistently finds himself living amongst Hasidic Jews. He has nothing but pleasant things to say about this particular sect, yet he remains confused on the clothing specifications. He asks, “Was God going through Cosmic Vogue magazine…and then in 1930s Hungary he was like, ‘Freeze. I love that!’”
Probably the most unique thing about Delaney is his interaction with his fan base. Because his career was launched in great part due to Twitter, he’s an active member of social media. On Tuesday he scheduled a “live tweet” of his show. Fans synced up and hit play at 9:30 PST and chatted with Delaney using the hashtag #rdlbb.
One audience member said, “Thanks for a great show @robdelaney. I hope you get rich so I can sell you photos of my armpit hair. #gotstudentloanstopay #rdlbb,” to which Delaney replied: “u know I’ll pay top dollar. #rdlbb xo.”
Which kind of explains Rob’s humor and fans in a nutshell. At just $5 this special is as good of comedy material as you’ll find all year. Treat yourself and buy it at Rob’s website. Follow this god of Twitter @robdelaney.
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Filed Under: Comedy CDs • Comedy Reviews
Way to go on spoiling jokes, man. You don’t have to give away chunks of the special to be descriptive.
Saying that I spoiled jokes is like saying movie trailers spoil movies. I didn’t exactly give away “chunks” when there’s an entire hour of stand-up. I gave away two direct “jokes” and hinted at long narratives while giving away the basic subject.
You think Delaney released that trailer afraid that he was going to “spoil” the special? Probably not. I think it’s best to let the comedian’s humor show itself rather than saying “he’s really funny.” Would you see a movie because the critics called it “really good”?