One hour of my life I will never get back: Demetri Martin Netflix standup review

I'm not sure why Ashley made me take this super-serious picture of her and the TV but I'm glad I did. Instead of partying on our last day of our junior year of high school, we wached Demetri Martin's standup.

I have loved Demetri Martin and his standup since I was 17 years old and, more spefically, on the last day of eleventh grade. That obsession should have stayed there. He was definitely the first standup comedian I ever watched so for a while (until recently really) I also thought he was the greatest standup comedian ever. 

I remember the first clip I ever watched of him on YouTube that my friend Ashley sent me saying I would love it. And I did love it. I remember reading both of Demetri's books, even if they weren't actually books. There was a time when "Important Things with Demetri Martin" was the most important thing in our lives. I remember being really excited for Demetri's new standup special but I feel like I shouldn't have been.

This summer I watched a lot of comedy. And when I say a lot, I mean more than the average person should ever watch. If someone were to study my Netflix habits, one would probably think I'm planning to do my own standup routine and needed to get ideas. Nope. I'm not sure why I decided to watch so much standup this summer but I'm glad I did. Demetri Martin was honestly the only comedian whose material I had seen everything of before this summer and I'm glad I branched out. 

This summer I started with the basics. Louis C.K., Bill Burr, Aziz Ansari. Men dominate the comedy world and somehow I was ok with that for a while. Tig Notaro and Mike Birbiglia are the only other comedians I ever remember watching in high school besides Demetri and I rediscovered them this summer along with some new favorites. I think Chelsea Peretti is a genius and Iliza Shlesinger and Amy Schumer are new obvious favorites. 

The very first Demetri Martin standup video I ever watched! He often rocks an acoustic guitar and a harmonica around his neck for his shows. 

When I found out Demetri Martin had taped a new comedy special and it was being released on Netflix, I texted Ashley immediately and we promised not watch it without the other. We ran out of Demetri material to watch four years ago and Demetri shaped our entire final year of high school after all. There's not a day that goes by where I don't creepily say "laaaaaadies" in a Demetri Martin voice.

Demetri's new standup special is called "Live (At The Time)" and while the jokes are fast and quick-witted, I felt cheated. Demetri tells jokes and doesn't have stories or acts. One after the other. He gives you time to laugh but doesn't give you time to think about it. Was that actually funny or did he tell it in a manner that was funny? Why am I laughing at a fart joke from a comedian who's twice my age? And I never saw that as a problem until I got into other comedians and their standup was more structured and routined. 

While we were very excited to hear new material from Demetri, I feel as if I heard the same thing again. I appreciated the volleyball joke and the hairless cat one was great too, among many others, but the special didn't have any substance. The special was funny, giving me a many chuckles, but was easily forgettable and just like the rest of his standup specials. I guess that's the point of his comedy. Quick, smart and vaguely funny. Obviously I liked Demetri's special. It was new material after we hadn't any for years.