Over the past few years, Netflix has become the go-to place to watch the latest stand-up comedy, both from household names and up-and-coming talents alike.
Just this month, the streaming service released new specials from John Mulaney and Ali Wong, and the first-ever taped hour from Hari Kondabolu. This week, however, Netflix goes into overdrive with new specials from “One Mississippi” star Tig Notaro and duo Steve Martin and Martin Short. The former premieres today, while the latter begins streaming on Friday.
Filmed at Houston’s historic Heights Theater, “Tig Notaro Happy To Be Here” follows the comic’s critically acclaimed debut comedy special, “Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted,” which premiered in 2015 on HBO. It boasts a runtime of around 58 minutes, which is short when compared to most other Netflix specials that don’t have to contend with commercial breaks, but don’t let it fool you. Notaro’s second bout is just as introspectively hilarious as her first.
From her marriage to Stephanie Allynne and their lives as cat and kid parents, to that one time she was invited to a party hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian’s follow-up to “Boyish Girl Interrupted” packs plenty of fun bits. And for fans of the recently canceled “One Mississippi,” the Amazon Prime original series Notaro co-created with Diablo Cody, “Happy To Be Here” offers them what they’ve sorely been missing – more Tig.
This is something Netflix subscribers will also be getting with DeGeneres’ upcoming special, which Notaro will direct, and “First Ladies,” a recently announced political comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Notaro as the first female President of the United States and her wife. But since neither of these will be available to stream until later this year or in 2019, “Happy To Be Here” will surely suffice.
Switching gears, “Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget For The Rest Of Your Life” presents viewers with a drastically different, but nonetheless enjoyable hour of comedy. Actually the new special, which features a rare return to stand-up for Martin, is closer to one hour and 13 minutes in length, but this makes perfect sense as pure stand-up is only one of the many things the pair does throughout.
Comedy, musical numbers, ventriloquism, sketches, not-so-serious conversations about their respective careers and previous collaborations – the duo’s new Netflix show is fantastic. This comes as no surprise, as Martin and Short have been performing and perfecting these bits for the past two years. It wasn’t until late February that they decided to record the performance at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina.
That the special would be premiering exclusively on Netflix wasn’t officially announced until late April, a full month before its streaming debut, but the show is definitely worth the wait. Longtime fans of Martin and Short will find plenty to love about “An Evening You Will Forget For The Rest Of Your Life,” as will newcomers unfamiliar with Short’s heyday on “SCTV” and “Saturday Night Live,” or Martin’s classic comedy albums and theatrical films.
