When Joe Pera Comes to Your Town You Have to Go See Him

Over the weekend I got to see Joe Pera do stand up live for the second time this year. Pera is a fantastic comic. My daughter asked if he was my current favorite standup, and after some thought, yes, Joe Pera is my favorite comedian at the moment. I like the way he performs. We had very good seats in the balcony at The Pageant here in Saint Louis. I prefer sitting up there now. It's much more comfortable. I guess that's a sign of my aging. Oh well.

The opener came on stage just a bit after 8pm. His name is Robert Dean. I liked his set quite a bit. He kind of reminded me of an upbeat Paul F Tompkins. I'm not saying Tompkins is a dour comedian. He is far from it. Tompkins is funny and fun on stage. I've seen him with "CBB Live", and he is a delight. Dean just had a tiny bit more energy, and he dresses like Tompkins. Anyway, Dean was a great opener. He got the crowd ready. He had a bunch of good bits. He interacted with the crowd very well. He moved through his set with ease. It was nice to see a seasoned standup open for another seasoned standup. Dean did a very good job at his job. I have been watching some of his other sets on the internet since seeing him.

After 20 minutes, it was time for the headliner, Joe Pera. Now, after seeing him only a few short months ago, I didn't know what to expect. I did expect very good comedy, which is exactly what we got. Pera is a pro. He knows what he is doing on that stage. He knows how to command the crowd. He knows his segues like clockwork. He is damn good. It was all new material that we saw the other night as well. There were no repeated jokes. Everything was fresh. I applaud that from a pro. He could've done some of the same material, but he didn't. He deemed us necessary to hear new jokes. And I loved them all. I was in stitches the entire hour long show. He even stayed out on stage a little later than expected to tell us a very new joke, which proceeded to kill. I don't know if he does this everywhere, but this joke that he claimed was a work in progress really felt like a closer. It was damn good. During his set, he crushed with his new stuff too. I loved the video game bit. He brought a few people on stage to play out a videogame he was working on. It was pretty wonderful. I was all in on the meatball bit he did. That was a crowd bit, and it went off like gangbusters. I really liked hearing about some of the topics they went over in the writers room of his show. These were ideas for future episodes, or ideas they never made. This was very funny and I loved the inside look at his excellent tv show. But, my favorite bit of the night was when he talked about seeing "Aliens" for the first time. He told us that he was a kid, that he watched it in the dark by himself and that he came running up the steps to make a big proclamation to his family. I will not spoil the joke here, but I will tell you, it goes in a direction that none of us in the crowd were expecting. And that is why it was my favorite joke of the night.

Go see Joe Pera if he is coming to your town. He is great at what he does, he does tremendous crowd work and he seems to be having a blast while he is on stage. He is one of the best out there at his craft. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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If Joe Perra Comes to Your Town, Go to His Show

Over the weekend me and a buddy went to see Joe Pera at The Pageant here in Saint Louis. Let’s discuss.

I am relatively new to Joe Pera. The same friend told me to watch his show, as did RD, and I devoured all three seasons in less than a week. Each episode is only about 11 minutes so it wasn't some big undertaking. But I watched as much of the show each day as I could. I kept wanting to watch more and more. The more the show progressed the more I got into it. Joe Pera has this calm way about him. The show was great but also very unpredictable. "Joe Pera Talks with You" had a simple premise. Pera would bring up a subject he liked and try to talk to the audience about it. He would start his presentation and something wild would happen. That was what drew me into the show. I also appreciated the fact that the show took place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That is where my parents are from and a lot of my extended family still lives around the UP. It was easy for me to relate to the people, the accents and the general idea.

I did not know what to expect from an hour long standup show from Pera. I purposely stayed off the internet leading up to the show. I did not want to know anything that might be coming my way. I wanted to experience it all at the moment. That is one of my intentions in the new year. I want to get the full experience for the first time. That was the right thing for me to do.

Dan Licata, who wrote for the show, opened the night up. He did a solid 15 minutes. He was funny, fast and had some really interesting joke deliveries. He owned his lot in life. He made fun of family and friends. He did some very good crowd work. He was a little more upbeat and hyper than Pera. It was a nice yin to Pera's yang. I enjoyed his set very much. And without any wait he introduced Pera and Pera took the stage.

This crowd was perfect. We all cheered loudly, but respectfully when he walked on stage. We all knew his cadence and how he would deliver jokes. We know because we are all fans. And when he slowly walked on stage a giant smile grew on my face. I have found that, since COVID, I am nervous in enclosed spaces with a lot of people until the person I have come to see steps on stage. When Pera took the mic and started his show, all that fear washed away and I was in the moment.

Pera did not disappoint. He read an intro that killed, in his usual slow cadence. It was hilarious. He made joke after joke while reading the intro. I loved it. He did way more crowd work than I expected and it was tremendous. He would start a bit and then go out to the audience to get our take. His bit about feeding pita chips to a squirrel was made all the better because of his crowd work. He would openly laugh at some of the stuff the people were saying, but then he would use it. He is a pro at crowd work and it showed tenfold on Saturday night. I was blown away. He told a great bit about writing a love column for the New York Times. It had his typical outlook and joke telling presentation. Then, near the end of the letter he got real blue. I was caught totally off guard in the best possible way. I did not expect him to say the words that he was saying and I was cackling all along the way. And it wasn't like a shock comedian or anything. The swear words were needed for the joke and Pera used them expertly. He brought Licata and another actor who was on the show with him and they did a solid bit to close out the night.

This show was everything I wanted it to be, but it was so much more. I was blown away by what I saw. I am an even bigger fan than I was a few days ago. Joe Pera is a top notch alternative comic. I definitely recommend seeing him if he is near or in your time. He is more than worth the price of admission. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.