Four Stand-Up Specials That Showcase Hard-Working Comics
The New York Times
Theo Von, Roy Wood Jr., Ricky Velez and Jo Firestone each turn in solid hours filled with smart, funny observations.
The stand-up specials that get the most attention tend to be made by celebrities, but as dedicated comedy fans know, the funniest ones are much more likely to emerge from midcareer workhorses, like the artists who recently put out these new hours.
A couple times a year, some city slicker with impeccable elite-media credentials whispers to me: What do you think of Theo Von? What this translates to is: I didn’t think I was going to like this guy, but he’s hilarious. And it’s true. One of the most magnetic storytellers in comedy today, he plays with hot-button cultural issues, but not for cheap shock. The title refers to the people from his Louisiana hometown. He’s less charitable about those in Los Angeles, where he currently lives. About them, he quips: “I don’t blame the, um, fires.”
There’s not only sincerity to his act, but an eccentricity that takes you by surprise. He opens by mocking his appearance — “I look like somebody who might have matches on them” — before a series of yarns about kids he grew up with, like one with no arms named Gert or a boy named Tot, who had “a lick of autism, a pretty good lick of it.” There’s affection and even innocence in these tales, which sound like a white-guy/red-state version of the “Fat Albert” gang.
A special prosecutor on Thursday unsealed the charges in the killing of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in December.
European officials were not sure what to make of the secretary of state’s measured assessment of Washington’s apparent pivot toward Moscow.
Many Black Americans were frustrated by the Trump administration’s targeting of D.E.I. programs. But others embraced the speed at which he moved.
The police said Emil Williams, who had been reported missing, pointed a gun at an officer before they shot him. A neighbor on Long Island said everything about him had been “normal.”
Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement activist, returned to North Dakota, where, under home confinement, he will serve the remainder of his life sentence for the murders of two F.B.I. agents.
Andrew D. Lester, 86, was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last week to felony assault in the 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl.
The state’s attorney general sued nine companies that make and distribute popular vaping devices, seeking a permanent ban on the flavored products.
The president’s company, Trump Media & Technology Group, represents a clear mingling of his official duties and his business interests.
Abortion opponents had tried to block, or severely limit, the procedure, against the will of voters who in November enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.
The president made his power to shut down the tolling system sound absolute. But legal experts say the law may not be in his favor.
The Trump administration has said little about the Venezuelan men who were transferred from Texas to the U.S. military base in Cuba.
After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.
The S.S. United States, the largest passenger ship ever built in America, left Philadelphia under tow on Wednesday, eventually to be sunk off the Gulf Coast.