Oh, Hello on Broadway

If you like John Mulaney's standup, you'll appreciate this show. I loved it!

I'm not really a Broadway person, but I love John Mulaney and Nick Kroll so I had to check this out. This show is absolutely hilarious. My friend and I were laughing the entire time. They make fun of a lot of tropes in theater which great. Their characters George and Gil are so funny. There are a lot of New York related jokes that probably make the most sense to people who are actually from New York, but I still found it very entertaining.

Although I never saw the creation of Gil & George (2005 performing at alt comedy rooms) I feel like I've been on an amazing journey with them. Nick and John's ability to riff off each other is almost effortless.

Listening to them on the podcast Comedy Bang Bang (hosted by Hot Saucerman) was my first experience and whenever they dropped by the show, they were funny to a degree of perfection.

Gil and George's sketch segment on Kroll Show called Too Much Tuba really made me realize how much I hate tuna, and for that I am eternally grateful.

I don't know them and they don't know me, but I was proud of them regardless when Oh Hello turned into a Broadway show. I'm not in theater but performing on Broadway seems like a pretty big deal. I loved when John got a Swedish Fish in his teeth. I love when Nick called the audience poor. I loved Steve Martin. But mostly, I loved when Nick accidentally sang Movin Out by Billy Joel.

And a huge shout out to Anna who does their old man makeup. They look old as hell. You nailed it.

I went into "Oh, Hello" knowing very little, and I think that's the best way to go into this. "Oh, Hello" is a weird and stupidly brilliant mix of stand-up and theatre, and as a passionate fan of both of these mediums, I absolutely loved the way Nick Kroll and John Mulaney blended and created this performance. "Oh, Hello" is unique, original, and interesting, and should be considered essential for theatre and stand-up fans. The characters of George and Gil are well executed and extremely fun to watch, and I absolutely love this special. It is one of the most quotable pieces I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong, there are flaws here. The show tries to tackle a lot of different things; an interview, standup, a story, a "ballet", and all these elements are well meaning and pretty well executed, but sometimes, particularly during the interview, they feel a little bit like lulls in the performance. A lot of the jokes, as well, are very New York based, about specific parts of living in and being in New York city, and if you're not familiar with NYC then these might go over your head, even though they're quite poignant and funny. That being said, the elements that Kroll and Mulaney introduce here are extremely interesting and entertaining, and make the show incredibly unique and fun to watch, and if you like performance art of really any form, you'll probably enjoy this. "Oh, Hello" is an excellent example the great kind of creative content a platform like Netflix can provide, and is definitely deserving of at least one watch. 9.5/10

Full disclosure- if you don't enjoy Broadway shows, subtract one star from the rating, and if you don't live in New York, subtract another. The humor is unapologetically slanted to a New York theater audience, but it is, after all, a limited run Broadway show.

Mulaney and Kroll inhabit their characters so comfortably and completely that one tends to forget the men behind them. A two-hour show of self- absorbed, borderline delusional caricatures is so reminiscent of Steve Martin's early comedy that his cameo in the middle of the show feels like a foregone conclusion.

The jokes are fast paced but the premise never seems rushed. The performance is loose, but scripted and theatrical enough to feel substantial. I've watched it twice. Highly, highly recommended to comedy fans.