Most comics would have at least used a transition to tie them together and build momentum. The remarkable part is that they are completely unconnected. The first 10 minutes of his new hour have maybe two good punch lines, and both are about chicken wings. The tepidness of his material here seems almost like a challenge, as if he’s saying: Watch how I can make even these jokes work. Williams has said he stopped performing in clubs and instead develops jokes in front of thousands of people. He pokes fun at Anthony Fauci and makes some half-baked jokes about Adam and Eve being incestuous. In his new special, which is not one of his better ones, his take on Joe Biden is that he’s old and the world war of the title is a vague battle between truth and lies that never entirely coheres into a complete thought. His act is not about carefully honed jokes. Along with his live-wire physicality, this is what makes him the finest arena comic of the moment. His delivery has a rhythm, a quickening beat that, once you clue into it, can make anything funny. In a landscape filled with stand-ups straining to go against the grain, carving out brands as renegades, Williams is a genuine eccentric.īut his distinctiveness starts with his cadence, a swaggering high-pitched voice that evokes the flow of Easy-E more than it does any comic. In a recent interview with Arsenio Hall, Williams, a prolific performer, said his legacy would be not as the greatest comic, but as the most original. It’s the kind of showmanship (not to mention punning) you can expect from Katt Williams. After a shot of the audience, a clever piece of misdirection by the director Spike Lee, the focus returned to the stage where one of the women opened a cage door slowly enough to let your mind wander to worst-case scenarios. His previous specials have been just as cinematic, with Williams strutting in wearing a massive fur coat and flanked by beautiful women or walking through the crowd in a cape while a voice-over tells you his thoughts.īut his most spectacular introduction had to be from “Priceless” in 2014 when the curtain dropped to reveal a smoky stage with two women dancing on either side of a cage containing a lion. In “World War III,” his new hour of stand-up on Netflix, you first see him racing across the stage like Tom Cruise hustling to save the world. Perpetually underrated, hustlin’ every day, and simply one of the best who ever lived.Katt Williams understands the importance of an entrance. He is the Allen Iverson of the comedy world. Maybe the most bleeped comedian in the history of Comedy Central, his raw honesty has limited his audience to some degree, but Katt Williams should be recognized for being an innovator in the form and for giving his fans every ounce of himself he has to give. He achieves this goal once again with a lucid realization about Orwellian language politics fueling the fervor for war … in the middle of a seven minute weed joke: Here he seamlessly transitions between telling a good-hearted father and son story while also making an enlightening point about prescription drug culture: Williams is a master at combining subject matter, allowing his personal trials with his family and friends to set the stage for a wider commentary. With many comedians, there is a trade-off between making societal critiques and weaving a personal narrative. #Katt williams specials full#These abilities are on full display when he poses a social and racial justice question while personifying a caged tiger: Speaking of the stage, he will use all of it, the mic, the mic stand, the stool, the speakers, and anything else he can get his hands on to enhance his already stellar storytelling capabilities. I personally hope he churns out a few more great ones so a wider audience can recognize the true unique genius he brings to the stage. Because he matches this with provocative and original content, he would make my personal Top 5 if not for a few misfire specials. Williams achieves Charlin Chaplin levels of visual comedy at times. We should start with my favorite intro to any special ever: Your face and body must work in harmony with your jokes and stories in order to achieve full effect, and no one does physical comedy better than Katt Williams. If you ask any stand-up comedian from the most well known to those just getting their starts at open mics, they will all tell you that the physical aspect of comedy is important. Image courtesy of the “Katt Williams on Evolution and Atheists” video posted on YouTube.
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