Ramy Youssef: More Feelings

First -- It IS a funny set from Ramy Youseff. I have no complaints about the comedy or Ramy himself. I thought he was funny and engaging.

But..... never really saw the crowd....

This is mostly filmed from 1 or 2 feet away... occasionally 5 ft away... There's no reason a comedy stand up special needs to have the comedians head take up 90% of the screen 80%-90% of the time. It was just FAR too close most of the time, and that made it uncomfortable to watch.

The lack of any crowd or establishing shots makes it SEEM like Ramy is performing in a room alone and someone has a finger on a laugh track button. The laughter starts/stops suddenly. There's generally no natural "trail off" most of the time. That makes it seem very unnatural. One could argue that there's no actual audience while Ramy is performing and any shots of the back of the heads of a crowd were added in post. If there was a split second where Ramy is actually speaking AND the crowd is shown, I must have missed it.

Please don't get me wrong. Some of the jokes are good, some were VERY good. As a "speech" it's funny and well written ...

.... but actually watching, as in looking at the screen, is a rather poor experience.

This special would be better served by an audio-only release. The way this was directed by Christopher Storer was a terrible disservice to Ramy.

We were impressed by the laughable and thoughtful content that was layered through Ramy's standup.

His slow paced style with long pauses reflected his capacity as a comedian to hold an audience, and he managed to throw in some spontaneous comedy based on audience responses which was high calibre. He also has a mesmerising stare which worked well for cinematic effect.

He leveraged his ethnicity as a central theme in the comedy in a thoughtful way. He occasionally made you think about society through the comedy rather than just throw jokes for jokes sake.

7/10 mostly because he was often funny, but didn't quite hit that hilarious level I would reserve for a higher rating.

I thought it was really funny. I liked his series and this special is on brand. He manages to be heartfelt and funny at the same time. The problem is that 70 percent of the shots have a spotlight shinning behind him. It was unnecessary and honestly very distracting. It strained my eyes so I actually closed my eyes for parts to let my eyes rest while I listened to his comedy. Which is worth the distraction from the constant spotlight. I just would have preferred regular camera shots without the lighting behind it. Ramy's humor is smart and thoughtful. I would recommend to others but would worry the light will bother them too.