Dan Soder: Son of a Gary

I've been following Dan Soder on insta for a while and knew he was pretty funny so I wanted to check out this special. My fiancé and laughed the whole time, occasionally having to pause it to catch our breath. Definitely one of the best comedy specials I've seen.

I was not familiar with Soder until I saw this on TV, and having seen other HBO stand-up specials, I wasn't expecting too much. I was pleasantly surprised by how real the stories felt, and how well they were woven together. At the end of the show it felt like I had experienced an integrated and organic event, rather than a haphazard mashup of stories and jokes, some of which may have been funny. Mushrooms and edibles did feature in more than one story, but not to the extent that this non stoner could not relate to the underlying truths of the stories.

I would say Soder has levelled up here, found a new maturity and bold honesty, along with a witty outrageousness that takes him into the territory of the best I've encountered. Looking forward to what comes next for him.

First Dan Soder stand-up comedy for me and it was a success. There is a good vibe to his show, it's like he's just telling us true stories but then in a funny way. He has a good vocabulary, nice accents and different voices, some good jokes and puns, but mostly he can bring it in a very amusing natural way. He's obviously a stoner and the way he brings his show feels like he's very relaxed on scene, with a good interaction with the audience. It doesn't feel forced like with some other stand-up comedians. Looking forward to watch another show of him.

I say new as in new to HBO/Netflix etc - but these days It seems to only be the established comics that can put out a quality special. Maybe most use their A material doing 20 podcasts a week and burnout? I'm not sure but I only knew Dan from Billions and JRE interviews where he seems a little funny, but I watched his stand up and honestly laughed out loud multiple times which is hard to do alone. It's not perfect and there are some slow spots but he's offering a unique POV and covering some stuff you don't hear much about which is saying something, it's not just the same old stuff which I think isn't most new comics fault they just all do each other podcasts and workout at the same shops etc but somehow Dan has avoided that despite being a part of that scene and having his own pod. I would compare him to Mark Normand (probably the funniest young(er) comedian out there) and Joe List who host a pod together - despite doing the whole thing like Dan their perspective is strong and doesn't seem to be a rehash of what everyone else is doing. Normand is still the best of the bunch but Dan surprised me and doesn't seem to be far behind. Recommended 7.5/10.