Welcome back to the blog everybody! If you've been following our podcast for the last year or so, then you know that are a handful of underground comics that we really respect and try to promote. Guys like Mo Alexander, Sam Miller, and several others who hardcore comedy fans know and casual comedy fans should learn about. The epitome of that description is Neil Rubenstein, who just released his first special on YouTube through Equal Vision Records called Have Some Dignity. We've had the opportunity to have Neil on the podcast twice now, meet up with him in person to have a small writing workshop, and learn who he is as more than just a comic. Needless to say, we were very invested in watching his special when it premiered, and we've been harping on it ever since. Here is where we're going to go into a full review of the special, so be sure to watch it here before you hear our thoughts on it.
Taking Back Sunday
Before we even get into the comedy, I want to talk about the intro to the special. I've been a huge fan of Taking Back Sunday since discovering them as a teenager, to the point where I've worn out multiple copies of Tell All Your Friends and several compilation CDs that my brother illegally burned for me (don't tell anyone). So when we got an opportunity to interview Neil Rubenstein the first time around, I was very stoked and trying not to ask him every question I would want to ask someone who was in the band. Needless to say, when they came on at the beginning of the video to introduce Neil, I had to suppress a high pitched former emo kid scream. It was such a cool way to start things off, and something a lot of comics used to do that we don't really see much anymore (think back to Dave Chappelle presenting Earthquake's Netflix special). Thanks to an appearance from TBS, I was fully invested from minute one of my viewing.
Production Quality
One of the first aspects of this recording that caught my eye (aside from Neil starting right off with jokes, which I love as opposed to walking to the stage), is how bright and eye catching the video is. It's no secret that this is a crowd funded comedy special, yet visually it looks just as professional as something you would see 0n Netflix or MAX. I consume jokes and comedy more regularly than a lot of people, so me telling you that the contrast in the lighting, the slight hue of blue that covers the room, and the overall camerawork that was done on this project is better than 99% of the YouTube, Amazon and Hulu specials that are out there is not an exaggeration. This might be a comedy nerd facet to be complementing the production crew on, but one of the first steps of having a good special is how it looks, otherwise you might as well just drop an album on Apple or Spotify.
Neil Rubenstein: Joke Writing Machine
There are a few comics that I have personally talked to or interviewed that I can tell from a simple conversation are miles ahead of me as a joke writer. I've struggled to keep up with the quickness and wit of Sam Tallent, Sean Patton, and a handful of others, but Neil has always been easy to talk to. He makes podcasting with him a delight, because he is so generous with the topics he's willing to discuss and the leash he's willing to give us to have room to make our own jokes. Then I turn on his special as soon as it premieres, and I discover just how next level Rubenstein really is. I laughed harder at his hour than I have at comedians who are on Netflix and working arenas. Now I knew Neil was funny, but I don't think I understood that he is truly top tier funny, to the point where I would rank Have Some Dignity in the top 5 best specials I've seen this year.
I have been very critical in this blog and on our podcast about some comedians' specials, namely Tom Segura's Sledgehammer, because I can go through that special and find something in almost every joke that could be done better or just doesn't w0rk from a joke writing standpoint. I'm not doing that here, and it's not because Neil is a buddy of ours and we like him. I went back and studied his special for this blog post, and I could not find a single joke, a single tag or a single premise that I would change. His performance was so refined that I could not pick out a single instance of a joke not working, and I definitely tried in order to give this article a layer of constructive criticism.
We were lucky enough to meet Neil for lunch and a writing workshop about a week ago, and seeing his process firsthand showed me exactly why I wasn't able to find a critique of his special. The tags and process he was able to share with me was a way of looking at comedy that I have never thought of before, and in return I was truly able to give him nothing that he hasn't already thought of. He shared with us improvements on his jokes from the special that none of us thought could be improved, and he was kind and generous enough with his time that he gave us all advice that advanced our comedy careers significantly in only 3 hours. I say all of this to get the point across that there is absolutely no reason why his next special should not be bought by Netflix or a major streamer.
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