James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome

I love for comedy specials and try to watch as many as possible. There are plenty or European or international comics who I have watched and loved.

This one was truly awful. I don't think I laughed once. Stunning how bad it is for it to be on Max, which has put out brilliant specials this year like Hannah Einbinder, Alex Edelman and Seth Meyers to name a few. I read a review that compared him to the brilliant Bo Burnham, and I don't see the comparison on any level. Even the crowd at the taping looked like they didn't understand what was going on.

Maybe this is primarily for a European audience that is more familiar with his previous work, but I feel like I went into it with a pretty open mind and I still don't understand the appeal on any level.

This has to be the first time I've ever reviewed someone I genuinely like this badly, I even watched it twice to make sure it wasn't just a bad mood, 3 ish hours over two sittings, maybe smiled twice, it felt disjointed with the weird mini drum break ups even though after a split scene, it returned on same subject!

It felt like a long warm up chat that never went anywhere, the mic at start was broken which wasn't even funny, he missed every joke and the crowd were dead or polite at best, the material was horrific, he is normally side splitting type funny, if this is him matured, I'd rethink as it's awful James.

Seeing him in films was a blast and he's come far but as someone who has seen his stuff decade or so ago this is one of the worst shows ever, let's be real he says he hates doing stand up... the proof is here.

Seeing a comedian make reference to 'hate speech' is a very strange concept to me. James does this in his opening credit. I wonder whose definition he uses and whether he will cancel himself in future when the culture inevitably shifts?

Anyway,

This show was safe, broad and luke warm. Made for corporate television and people who enjoy 'wacky' gags without needing to think too much. An absolute guarantee he gets booked on the same luke-warm BBC panel shows for years to come.

Take a look at his target demographic and those in the audience and it all starts to make sense.

Uninteresting, beige and overdone premises and concepts. It's no wonder you rarely see James in the mix with the best of the best, who aren't worried at all about hurt feelings and go for funny first.

Really disappointed. We love James Acaster and have really enjoyed his earlier stuff. This was unfortunately unwatchable though and we really tried to persevere but had to turn off 15 minutes in.

Incredibly low effort jokes (if you could call them that) and poorly delivered. It felt lazily done and like the passion had gone.

Really surprised at how low quality this was compared to his previous work. It was awkward to watch the live audience force a chuckle. Hopefully he finds his spark again in future work but for now would recommend any Acaster fans avoid this train wreck of a performance. Really, really bad! :(

If you guys are just finding James from this special, you must find more. He has a collection of specials on Netflix, a comedy special on Vimeo (one of the funniest I've ever seen), and is on a complete series of Taskmaster (free on YouTube). This special is a bit disjointed, irregular, and post-modern. This is due to James having done this for a while. His previous routines (in the previous specials) are more "normal," but James is generally far from normal.

In "Hecklers Welcome", James has fully detached himself from his "Repertoire" days and he seems fully liberated (or fully on his way). I could not imagine this being my introduction to James, but, again, if it is, please seek more. Then, after consuming the other content come back here to this special. I don't hope that I'm implying that you must view James's other material first, but this material is enhanced by the viewing of his previous material. Parasocially, I am so proud of where James has ended up in his career and, while I hope selfishly that he continues doing stand-up, I would understand him hanging up the microphone.

James is one of the best comedians to do it, and, like a brilliant comet, may not be around forever. So, we must relish in his brilliance while we can.