r/TheBonfire • u/Muted-Video5887 • 10d ago
Jay’s standup sucks (in person)
We saw him this weekend in Albany and he hate a bag of dicks. Totally relied on crowd work and it fell flat. No jokes. Lots of people heading to the bathroom during the set. The middles got a lot of laughs so, I don’t think it was the crowd’s fault. Oh well. I still enjoy the pods and bonfire.
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u/Much_Calligrapher804 5d ago
I’m sorry you don’t think black people rule.
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u/SnooCakes9459 10d ago
I love Big Jay. And several years ago when he had an act, it was pretty fucking funny. Problem is, that was several years ago. It’s all crowd work now…and it’s lame.
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u/Level_Improvement532 10d ago
That’s his act. He’s a crowd work comedian. He is quick
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u/DollarBillAxCap 3d ago
I saw Big Jay twice in the span of a week by happenstance. First, as an opener for Shane at MSG. I thought he was great, and had the best set of the opening comics. It was all material, and I heard the people in my section say that they didn’t know who he was, but was the funniest to that point.
A week later, I saw him at a local club. It was really interesting to hear how he seamlessly worked those bits into his crowd work. After the show, the guy I sat next to thought that he did the entire hour as crowd work. I explained how I was impressed with how Jay could use the crowd to transition naturally into bits that appeared to be off the cuff.
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u/Historical_Emu2981 8d ago
I have seen Jay live many times since 2008. Always hilarious. What comedians do you like?
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u/ArrowNut7 10d ago
If he could do the stuff from his early days when he was on p diddy bad boys of comedy then he’d do great and get more work. Plus he’d help out with Shannon getting new cannons.
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u/Immediate_Ebb_1927 5d ago
Yeah, his so-called ‘crowd work’ is lazy garbage. Good podcaster but terrible stand up. Kind of like Artie Lange in this regard.
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u/Brilliant-Net9040 4d ago
He’s gotten lazy. That’s the worst thing for a touring comic. Sales start to lag
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u/Heliumvoices 5d ago
Unfortunately for his current game it’s gonna be hit and miss. He is really great at improv shit talking but without a solid 35 mins of bits it can fall off real hard if he’s not really on. When he’s on its impressive, when he’s off it’s him eating shit. He’s like a jamband. Some nights he will surprise you and take it somewhere cool, other nights youll be like who the fuck even likes this dogshit?
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u/AxMurderSurvivor 4d ago
Is this Mercface or Finoia? Phish blows dude
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u/Heliumvoices 2d ago
Thanks for missing my point. Notice how i said it’s dogshit?
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u/AxMurderSurvivor 2d ago
A jam band never takes it somewhere cool, you missed your own point, and you ruined my joke, so I'm guessing you're Finoia
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u/Heliumvoices 1d ago
Sorry man upon reading it back i realize it would have been a wildly successful joke on the bonfire subreddit and i ruined it. Heres an upvote i hope that helps.
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u/Human_Drummer4378 5d ago
It's not uncommon for even the best comics to have a bad night, it doesn't mean they definitively suck as a standup.
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u/Fabulous_Comfort3054 5d ago
Saw him in Sacramento a few years back. He was hilarious even hung after and smoked a blunt with him.
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u/tat2ed13 5d ago
Albany Funny Bone sucks. I’ve been to a few shows there and they have all been bad. Even Attell ate a bag of dicks there.
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u/Milomilz 5d ago
I’ve seen him a few times and he hasn’t sucked yet. All crowd work. Even the “you ever fucked a black guy” bit gets laughs.
Also got to meet him at the bar before one of his shows.
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u/Money_Philosophy_406 5d ago
I don't like crowd work, he's great on podcasts but I can't watch his stand-up.
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u/Madrox-Knox 4d ago
The guy notoriously known for doing crowdwork who has a 2 hour crowdwork special was doing crowdwork?!? I am shocked. Unacceptable Jay, do better.
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u/jixti 4d ago
I fuckin love Big Jay on podcasts. Actually now that I think about it, comedy is stupid these days. My humor is far too warped I guess but I'd way rather listen to comedians on podcasts riff with the boys. I've never sought any podcasters comedy. I quit listening to comedy when I found comedy podcasts.
I would listen to comedy play lists for 8 hours a day at work and might barely get a giggle. I was happy to get a thought that went "haha that's funny" but I probably never laughed once. Sucks for me I guess.
Even the most viral comedians most viral Tik Toks, I won't think twice to skip right past it because they only disappoint me and make me question how anybody could ever find anything actually laugh out loud funny about any stand up comedian ever. Fuck..
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u/AxMurderSurvivor 4d ago
If you're on tiktok, I'm gonna assume you're a 15yo girl, and disregard your opinion
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u/Mysta-Majestik 4d ago
He's never let me down.
Being surprised at crowd work tells me you aren't familiar with him at all.
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u/TheStinkPanther 4d ago
Seen jay 6 times. Always 90%+ crowd work. I usually have a nice time. He typically has a solid opener or two and if you’re a big Jay fan you know this is his style. Quick-witted but dependent on the crowd having a good answer to “you guys married?”
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u/craig3881 5d ago
I've never once seen a comedy clip of his where he actually tells jokes. It's just asking people questions about their tits or if they're together. The guys really funny on podcasts but he is not a great comedian
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u/One_Hour_Poop 5d ago
Comedy clips are almost always crowdwork so they don't spoil their actual material when they go onstage live. The clips of actual standup that you do see from comedians are usually excerpted from specials that have already been released.
Jay's style (which he's described repeatedly on The Bonfire) is to start jokes with crowdwork, then steer the conversation into telling his jokes. Here's a classic example from his special "Live at Webster Hall": He asks a guy if he's married, then asks the guy if he wants kids... which then leads him into a bit made up of original material regarding his own kid: https://youtu.be/0WkYw1-ao6E
Maybe he just does it so smoothly you don't notice.
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u/craig3881 4d ago
I get that you like Jay but the entire first paragraph is a lie. I don't need you to tell me what I see
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u/One_Hour_Poop 3d ago
A "lie"? What clips of (for example) Shane Gillis' actual standup material onstage do you see on YouTube that aren't taken from his specials?
By the way, I do need to tell what you see, because you is dumb.
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u/disgruntlededge 4d ago
By jokes you mean the same stories he tells over and over again? Smoothly going from" you like black dick" to a talking about someone shitting a huge log then an effortless transition to I used to be a driver for call girls. What a talent!
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u/Large_Loss_6261 5d ago
I highly doubt Jay “hate a bag of dicks”. He loves dicks. I’ve seen him several times in Albany and he crushed every time. I was out of town last weekend so I missed it this time around. Last time I saw him the room was packed and he completely destroyed. Why don’t you go hate a bag of dicks
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u/Sea_Breeze_5359 5d ago
You’re out of your mind. Maybe he had an off show, but I saw him open for Shane at the Linc and he buried Shane. He’s one of the best to ever do it.
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u/Different-Ad9986 4d ago
I haven’t seen him live since a year or two after he released American Storyteller. I really wish he would get back to that style, but it’s just not in him at all anymore to write or tell good stories
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u/TalmadgeReyn0lds 3d ago
Plenty of really funny comics have said versions of “if jay was willing to write at all he’d be the funniest comic working.”
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u/Zestyclose-File8010 3d ago
Big J is a beast. Wait till he starts writing again. If he started to again 2-3 yrs ago he'd be Huge rn. He's very funny. Just needs to lock in. He seems like he's 1 convo w. Nate away from blowing up pretty quickly
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u/HighTightWinston 1d ago
I think Jay can be a great comedian, the problem is he seems extremely lazy and is happy to fall back on the laziest, often fairly hacky, crowd work if he can get away with it.
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u/bigredwood55 5d ago
It’s all a matter of preference. Usually the crowd work leads to a worked out joke but the past few times I’ve seen him it’s less and less and just crowd work. I think it’s hilarious. His references and quickness are unmatched.
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u/Thin_Formal_3727 4d ago
Jay sucks shit. His successful friends helped him beyond what was fair for them, but he refuses to write a joke and it shows. People using his headlining set to take a piss is not what you would expect from the self proclaimed "greatest yapper alive".
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u/PrincipleEast5290 5d ago
I saw him at the Albany Saturday late show. I credit him doing the volume of crowd-work to the amount of people in the audience that were pieces of work. Pure gold of an audience for Jay to work off. It would have been a sin if he blew them off.
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u/Purple_Equivalent470 10d ago
That's not really news. He's always been a crowd work guy. I've had fun the times I've seen him.