comedy tour

OK, yes, this comes even later than it did last year, but we swear our list encapsulating our favorite 100 things in comedy from the last year is just as worth it on the 1st of the new year as it is the 4th (or any other day for that matter). Also, we’re the Artistic Director @ Lyric Hyperion while doing this, so show us some grace why don’t you?

1. One could think of Julio Torres’ Problemista as 2024’s Everything Everywhere All at Once for all of it’s original panache and comedic absurdity blended perfectly with human pathos that’s deserving of so many awards, but Torres’ feature debut is so grand that it deserves to stand without comparison.
2. Rory Scovel not only retains his title as one of the very best comedians on stage today, no matter the situation, with Religion, Sex, and a Few Things in Between, but does so with such abandon that it feels like half of this very tight, delightfully subversive special is improvised on the spot (and lots of it very well might be).
3. The story within Curtis Cook‘s Miss Bulgaria 2018 bit/half-hour is as staggering as it is outright, unquestionably hysterical and further showcases Cook’s prowess for stand-up to be as sharp as the very best of his contemporaries.
4. Aussie comedian Tom Cashman actually proves that a really funny joke/bit can make a tangible, legislative  difference with the groundbreaking story in Pests.
5. Youngmi Mayer’s memoir I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying gives a crucial, vulnerable, and very funny look into her own singular facet of the very complex Asian-American/immigrant experience, but does so with the attitude befitting the 2020s (i.e. getting in touch with the human experience, as messy as it can be, of trying to figure every day out the best we can, hence the title).
6. Mark our words, Chloe Radcliffe‘s Cheat could destined to be the next big solo show turned comedy special/series/etc. (if streamers/networks are keen enough to read the writing on the wall).
7. Let James Adomian’s very first hour stand-up special Path of Most Resistance be proof that James should have no more impedance in doing whatever he dreams up and showing it to everyone. Amongst several gems in the hour, James might have nailed the very best bit on famed nature doc narrator, David Attenborough.
8. Jason Reitman capturing how the very first episode of SNL went to air in real time with Saturday Night reminds us of the fire and verve of everyone who built Saturday Night Live into the comedy monolith that it is today.
9. The frenetically absurd comedy of Tim Platt is so joyfully ridiculous (as captured on his album Teeth Like Beak) and will leave you pondering for quite some time what magical place all of his bits come from.
10. The high-minded concepts (figuratively, but sometimes also literally), pinpoint execution, and the carefully measured delivery of Hannah Einbinder get wonderfully framed in her debut hour special (shout out to wondrous direction from Sandy Honig).
11. Tommy Dassalo‘s does Australia proud with one hell of an inventive, colorful, and beautiful dissection of scam artistry with his new hour Scam Artist.
12. The perfectly tempered of chaos of Carmen Christopher is marvelously on display, in one of the sharper suits you’ll see in a comedy special from 2024 no less, in Live From the Windy City.
13. Throughout the NYC comedy scene, few comedians have such the knack for play that Petey DeAbreu. See for yourself with his Don’t Tell set.
14. Dropout proved several people wrong by making a comedy only streaming service not only work, but undeniably thrive. It helps that all of their programming is the brainchildren of people who all came up at UCB/College Humor together.
15. Brad Howe is another one of a bold few that really broke away from a traditional comedy special this year. Please enjoy him as a small town rapscallion doing a comedy special at his neighborhood bar while trying to win the love of his life back with Live at the Legion.
16. Behold the glorious return of the havoc of Jiminy Glick while filling in for Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live with a very down-for-anything Nick Kroll and Melissa McCarthy.
17. The final pageant scenes of Coralie Fargeat‘s unflinching satire The Substance earned what was probably one of our hardest laughs of the year.
18. Rachel Bloom gives the spectre of death a much more different, very fun meta spin in the cleverly wrought and still ridiculously fun Death, Let Me Do My Special.
19. While many a revived or rebooted series falls far from the mark of its original, Futurama still goes just as strong on Hulu as it has ever been on any other network it has been on.
20. Learn about the immigration policies of half the world and laugh the whole way through with Dan the Stranger‘s English Language comedy special, Second Class-Citizen.
21. If you want your absurdity in your comedy as pure and unfiltered as can be, you might get addicted to Ian Abramson’s The Heist.
22. Simply put, 2024 was Nikki Glaser‘s year (great HBO special in Someday You’ll Die, mopping the floor with everyone at the Tom Brady Roast, and being tapped to host 2025’s Golden Globes). 2025 might be her year too, FYI.
23. Julio Torres‘ comedy empire is truly coming to fruition and Fantasmas (coupled with Problemista) make for possibly the most smartly color coordinated comedy empire we have ever come to know and love.
24. For all the inclusivity that capital C country, as a culture, has had in 2024, please do not sleep on comedy’s contribution to that effort with Ali Clayton‘s hysterical and charming album Country Queer.
25. Leave it to Conner O’Malley to show us all the way with what’s possible with a comedy special AND really skewer the idea of AI trying to do stand-up comedy. Please enjoy all of this on the very brilliant Stand Up Solutions.
26. Going into the wild unknown of 2025 will be made a bit more easier and a whole hell a lot more tolerable with Will Weldon’s podcast, I Hate Bill Maher.
27. First Day of School: Part 3 of Ali Siddiq’s Domino Effect saga truly showcases Siddiq’s mastery over a crowd and the captivating power a sole person can have on a bare stage with nothing but themselves and their story, especially illuminating on the humanity of prison inmates.
28. Score one against AI with the George Carlin estate suing to get an AI generated Carlin special taken down.
29. If there’s someone to do a definitive 10 minute plus bit on any subject, leave it to Kyle Kinane. On his latest hour, Dirt Nap, he accomplishes this feat yet again with exquisitely picking apart the Fast & Furious franchise.
30. Jackie Kashian continues to dish out the very best financial advice that double as amazing bits of stand up with her Don’t Tell set.
31. Conan O’Brien‘s appearance on Hot Ones is a pretty great reason why he might be remembered as the very best of this era of late night hosts.
32. Give John Mulaney the keys to a talk show and he’ll come up with Everybody’s in LA. It’s more esoteric than an episode of Comedy Bang! Bang!, but yet still strangely alluring, silly, and infectiously fun all the same.
33. For the 2020s, Hacks will probably be the very best and most enthralling and closest to reality look into the world behind stand-up comedy and everything, both glorious and nasty, with the fame it can bring. The third season keeps this statement very true.
34. Whether you’re brushed up on comedy history or not, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution, the crucial documentary profiling queer comedy icons and trailblazers from Page Hurwitz, ought to be required viewing for, well, everyone.
35. Kate Willett, for our money, continues her streak of the most brilliant sex positive, feminist material that’s on her second hour/debut special Loopholes.
36. The collection of comics that the amazing Hannah Gadsby assembles for Gender Agenda is indeed so inclusive of not only comedians from within the gender spectrum, but they’re diverse in style of comic as well, and are far more entertaining than the last several specials from Chappelle.
37. Carmichael ups the ante as much as he possibly can with a reality show that’s as real as a shot-and-edited show can be with Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show. The results are often all sorts of jaw-dropping, both hysterically and shockingly, as he doesn’t seem to really hide anything.
38. For how much Steve Martin embodies the notion of a ‘comedy legend’, a documentary examining his massive amount of celebrated work and life was far overdue and Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces does the job appropriately so.
39. The fine folks behind Everything Now show the true comedy magic behind a green screen and a Twitch stream and are doing so better than anyone else right now.
40. Conner O’Malley visits his old boss Seth Meyers on Late Night and might have had the most entertainingly rambunctious interview on late night throughout 2024.
41. The coy, handsome charm of Tig Notaro marvels yet again with her latest hour special Hello Again.
42. Taylor Ortega trying to find her “long last” siblings on Long Lost has us hoping this estranged family is infinitely large.
43. Dan Soder’s On The Road is our choice for faithfully and perfectly carrying the torch of classical stand-up comedy (and playing well for a 2020s audience all the same).
44. The Return of Jon Stewart to The Daily Show. Shouldn’t need a further explanation.
45. Paul Danke’s sophomore album, Mad River, is a testament to Danke being one of comedy’s smoothest operators (even if he did start a disastrous fire on stage).
46. Jamie Loftus is a paragon of making one’s own path in comedy as she has followed up an entire book about the culture of hot dogs with an astounding, insightful, hilarious, illuminating podcast covering the most-out-of-nowhere famous people and moments (thanks to the Internet) with her podcast 16th Minute of Fame.
47. The very last joke on Ramy Youssef’s More Feelings is probably the perfect joke when it comes to doing comedy about the war in Israel/Gaza.
48. For all of the Internet’s obsession with crowd work in stand-up, may we submit Rachel Kaly‘s dalliance with crowd work this year, which really captured the magical ephemera that actual crowd work is supposed to have.
49. Laurie Kilmartin‘s writing still reigns supreme as some of the sharpest, most hysterical, biting (and topical to boot) writing seen and heard today. Please watch and enjoy it all on Cis Woke Grief Slut.
50. At the outset of 2024, Alok closed out Gadsby’s Gender Agenda and left no doubt that they are new voice to listened to and enjoyed. Then, at the twilight of 2024, Alok made good on that foreshadowing and offered up such a beautiful and searingly funny special, Biology, that pulls off mixing stand-up comedy and poetry as well as flipping the narrative of cis-gendered culture to peak satirical effect.
51. Erin Judge and Jenny Chalikian have wonderfully helmed one of the LA scene’s longest running indie stand up shows, one that is so quintessentially LA as it’s hosted at The Ripped Bodice, a romance only book store, and their achievement gets thankfully shared with the world with an album recorded at their show, Romantic Comedy: Live at Ripped Bodice.
52. Danielle Kraese shows us all that ex-boyfriends are better (maybe even best?) remembered as the weird, alien creatures that live several feet deep in the ocean in her wonderful book, complete with masterful illustrations, Deep Sea-creeps.
53. When it comes to satirizing and also, simultaneously celebrating the concept of identity, the wild ride (complete with time-traveling alter ego interruptions) that Lara Ricote takes us on in her special GRL/LATNX/DEF might have the final word on that from 2024.
54. Don’t be surprised if Stavros Halkias becomes a comedy auteur with his star turn and co-feature film writing debut with the the insane cult (literal) comedy, Let’s Start a Cult.
55. Jackie Johnson‘s TED-talk-ifying the unraveling of her first marriage and finding herself into her second marriage got people cheering and actually on the edge of their seat with her solo show, How to Get a Second Husband.
56. Between #1 Son, her own brand of Soft Clown, and the G-rated clown show she live directs, Natasha Mercado is wonderfully carving out a space all her own for the ever burgeoning clowning world in LA comedy.
57. Chandler Dean’s Abolish Everything, a special comedy show where comedians argue to abolish something in the world, was already a perfect show for these times and will likely be even more perfect in the not so distant future.
58. It’s near alchemy that the shortcomings of Langston Kerman as a poetry teacher have been transformed into comedy gold of the most desirable karat as you can see with his first hour special, Bad Poetry.
59. Alan Starzinski wonderfully wore his slutty heart on his sleeve (and got beautifully and hilariously vulnerable too) for his latest solo show, Slut Boy.
60. Seemingly born out of the collective consciousness of the last several years, Fuck This Month has been the pitch perfect improv and victoriously cathartic improv show that just so happens to feature many of LA’s very best improvisers.
61. junior represents a well deserved milestone for LA comedy scene favorite Kimberly Clark who has never failed in bringing mirth to truly whatever audience she’s playing with her unstoppable warmth.
62. There is so much beautiful humor to be gleaned from contrasting the grandiose interior lives of introverts and the monotony of 9-5 and Rachel Lambert‘s Sometimes, I Think About Dying exquisitely brings this notion with a beautiful reintroduction to Daisy Ridley.
63. Nick Stargu pulls out all the stops to get as deeply silly as he possibly can (and show off his electric flute skills) and achieves that goal with flying colors on his debut special Why Won’t You Dance with Me?
64. Hayden Johnson put the comedy scene on notice of her arrival, often hilariously screaming while doing so in her very first hour of stand-up, Twink Death.
65. Even the experimental, label-defying comedian, Joey Greer dreamt up and exquisitely executed an interactive play that has a warm-up comedian have an existential meltdown with The Warm-Up.
66. The life and times of porn extras is one hell of a comedy gold mine as proven by Daniel Shar‘s solo show Near Sex for Work.
67. Rabble Rabble‘s consistently daft brilliance is what makes them one of the very best torchbearers of sketch comedy these days.
68. The return of Jamie Denbo‘s Beverly Ginsberg is to be praised (and maybe that’s who should have their own late night show if we’re done with white guys in suits?).
69. The culmination of years and years of work, surviving through the pandemic, only to come out more assured as the best example of comedy as poesy (along with some of the most brilliant bits on BJs), Jacqueline Novak’s Get On Your Knees is finally shared with the world via a Netflix special.
70. Caroline Cotter is a Real Chill Girl essentially is, very deservingly, the 2020s version of Defending Your Life.
71. Telling jokes in a slow burn style sometimes seems to be a lost art, but Emily Catalano and her preciously honed jones burn bright on her latest hour, Unspecial.
72. If you’ve wonder who is reinventing long form improvisational comedy on their own terms, please go watch Gunk ASAP.
73. There has been and continues to be an undeniable boom of stand-up comedy in India and Azeem Banatwalla might be at the very top of it (if you’re looking for who might come after Hasan Minhaj, Vir Das, or Zarna Garg). See for yourself with his latest special, Minor Celebrity.
74. The affability of Katherine Blanford is absolutely indisputable (paired with a sharply observed modern Southern perspective on the world) and her hour special Catholic Cowgirl is a very clear sign that she has many bigger and brighter things coming her way.
75. Martin Urbano might have just bested Anthony Jeselnik in being a comedic heel with Apology Comeback Special.
76. If there’s an award category for most important comedy documentary of the year, Will & Harper, the road film following the reconnecting of Will Ferrell with his dear friend and SNL collaborator, Harper Steele, now living life as a woman, should get the hardware.
77. Jay Larson‘s penchant for throwing curveballs during confrontations still makes for damn good stand-up as seen in his Don’t Tell set.
78. On top of being so wonderfully on the positive tip as a stand-up comedian, especially in her ceiling-breaking special A Buteau-ful Mind, we doubly love Michelle Buteau for calling out Chappelle by name on her special for his insistence for his controversial trans jokes.
79. Near the end of 2024, the 1600 block of North Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles became a nexus of improv and sketch in one fell swoop as The Clubhouse, The Pack Theater, and The World’s Greatest Improv School (AKA WGIS) all moved to within in couple doors down from each other (or in the case of The Pack and WGIS, the same storefront).
80. For all the edgelords and Kill Tony acolytes that desperately wheel and deal in awful schadenfreude, Doug Stanhope puts on a clinic for dark comedy with his latest special Discount Meat, (which also gets kudos for one of the most original presentation of a stand-up performance in 2024).
81. In many ways, Yorgos Lanthimos goes darker and more absurd with his 2024 entry, Kinds of Kindness, than he does with his lauded masterpiece Poor Things from 2023. That doesn’t change the fact that he is unquestionably comedy’s auteur earning big laughs from exploring the grayer areas of the human experience.
82. Read Glory Days and you’ll know the richness of Simon Rich’s imagination is kind of unrivaled especially when he ups the ante on the classic “coming of age” narrative, often with your favorite fictional characters like Super Mario from childhood, and exploring the middle age version of that.
83. If we’re afforded one great comedy memoir that captures what goes into the DNA of someone’s storied comedy career, let 2024’s be Paul Scheer‘s Joyful Recollections of Trauma.
84. We’re hoping The Lester Brothers‘ (Yassir and Lester) The Gutter, a rare, purely zany comedy that succeeds these days, is the start of a film run to overtake the other famous comedy brother directing duo, The Farrelly Brothers.
85. It should be very nice to know, despite whatever else is going on in the world, that Last Podcast on the Left is still going strong as ever as one of the very podcasts of all time.
86. Kevin Casey White already had a very fun hour special with Harangue, but the b-story of crowd work with one distracted audience member ends up playing out for one of the best endings of a special this year.
87. Catherine McCafferty has bested us all looking for queer love on apps by doing it with her unscripted web series, Pretty Gay, going on these dates with some of the funniest queer comics around (including herself), and making $$$ off of Patreon.
88. If you’re looking for I Think You Should Leave attitude in the film world, please enjoy Radu Jude‘s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.
89. The satisfyingly off-kilter off-beatness of the Rancho Equestrian District of Burbank in Valley Heat is very much the escape that we need (and probably more so in 2025 onwards).
90. Showtime/Paramount should be kicking themselves that missed out on Ziwe interviewing Anna Delvey and George Santos. We still firmly believe that Ziwe should be where late night goes in the very close future.
91. You’re not really going to better phrasing of imagery in stand-up comedy these days than from Aparna Nancherla. This 2024 Don’t Tell set is just once of many examples.
92. While PEN15 has concluded as a series, Sean Wang’s Didi wonderfully carries up that particular nebulous coming-of-age dramedy torch, almost as a spiritual sequel of sorts (especially with it being set in the 2000s)
93. We salute PBS for telling the stories of comedians that are not only deserving of shine and haven’t gotten their proper due yet, but also reaffirm the melting pot idea of the USA with their digital series, United States of Comedy.
94. Sure, many of you are reveling in the daringness of Babygirl, but please do not let Joanna Arnow‘s The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed escape you as the brazenly funny sex comedy of 2024.
95. Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane don’t exactly follow the footsteps of Harold and Maude in Nathan Silver’s marvelous Between the Temples. That said, maybe in 2024, such a disparate seeming, but very fun May-December connection isn’t about romance, but having connection where it would otherwise seem impossible.
96. The world of Stapleview just proves that there is very, very good world of sketch and character comedy outside of SNL to be obsessed with.
97. Yassir Lester is probably our favorite rascal on the Internet and him promoting his movie The Gutter gave him the perfect canvas to do his top shelf mischief (remember when he fooled everyone in thinking that Jersey Mike’s had a BLM sandwich?).
98. While so many rom coms tried to be so sexy this year, Harper Rose-Drummond and Kate Lavrentios were unapologetically brassy with sending up their lives as sexy roommates with their addictive Parallel Play web videos.
99. Scottish comedian Fern Brady makes a case for best title to a comedy special, Autistic Bikini Queen, in addition to being one of the best specials last year that’s essentially the scripted series of a comedian’s life in different stages.
100. The original conceit of Brooks Wheelan‘s hour special from 2024 is already pretty fun: touring through every city possible in Alaska and then taping an hour special at the end. Alive in Alaska gets even more satisfying when Brooks does a post game press conference a la any professional sporting event to comment on his own hour special right after he finished performing his brand new hour.

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