Ty Watches Nicole Byer's "BBW (Big Beautiful Weirdo)"
Last week, before departing for our holiday trip, my wife and I were finally able to watch Nicole Byer's new stand up special "BBW" on Netflix.
We are Byer fans in my house. We love "Nailed It". My wife and I think she is tremendous on "Brooklyn 99" as Trudy Judy. She is the star of the new, very good show "Grand Crew". She is always a delight when she is on a podcast or hosting her own. But I have never seen her standup before. I have heard about it from other people. I have heard that she works very blue, that she is very funny and that she knows how to control the crowd. A buddy of mine saw her pre-pandemic and said she was amazing, but he did not know that she was so dirty. He knew her from "Nailed It" as well I believe. So I was pretty pumped about the special. I did know, or heard, that she does work dirty, but I could care less about that. I have seen a bunch of comics that work blue and the same amount that work clean. It does not matter either way. A good comic is a good comic. Hell, Tracy Morgan was incredibly blue when I saw him, and it was amazing. Brian Regan is known as a clean comic, and he was fantastic every time I have seen him. Jen Kirkman straddles the line, and she rules. The language does not matter. But make no mistake, Byer is blue, and that comes off right away in "BBW".
The special opens with a pole dance, those of us that follow her on Instagram know how much she has practiced this, and it is great. It is a perfect way to open the show. From there on out Byer touches on a ton of things. She opens talking about life during the pandemic. That can be tiresome, but she made it funny and personal. She talked about how it has affected her sex life. She cannot find a good and safe way to hook up with another person. It was very funny. From there the special just got better and better. Her whole bit about Karen's was simply wonderful. I loved her portraying the children of said Karen's. When she talked about flying on a plane with a humongous NICOLE chain and getting drunk, that was the best bit of the night. I loved the button she put on that bit, talking about getting Shake Shack in the morning when she landed, and eating it in the airport toilet. Another pandemic joke I loved was when she talked about the only people who oppose masks are the people who should be wearing them to hide their not so great looking faces. That was perfection. I really enjoyed the crowd work. That is always a plus for me. I like how she went after JK Rowling, and the Harry Potter stuff was gold. I related to her dropping pizza on the ground but deciding to finish it anyway. But what I loved the most was when she talked about singing and how she is not very good at it. This included some wonderful crowd work. She made some very solid jokes about how her appearance can fool people who may think she is a singer. But it was all wrapped up in a great bow when she was talking about Shake Shack and eating it in the toilet. This was when she was so hammered that she decided to sing to try and calm her nerves and let the other people in the bathroom know she was okay. This made me laugh the hardest. This had me giggling afterward. I am smiling thinking about it right now. It is a great bit of comedic storytelling.
Check this special out. Byer is finally getting the shine she has deserved for a long time now. Byer is a great actor, but she is an even better comedian. This special more than proves that.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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