Fred Armisen: Standup For Drummers

Fred Armisen: Standup For Drummers

Fred Armisen: Standup For Drummers

2/7/18. I didn't know what to expect from a Fred Armisen standup. Oh, yes, I do in a way. I have watched him for years on SNL. This was like watching him playing Garth (without Kristen Wiig's Kat). Basically, he was all over the place, with occasional funny bits. The only saving grace was when he talked about and played his drums. He is actually quite a good drummer. Nice he had other drummers do their thing, especially Shiela E. So, it's a toss-up. Watch it if you like his humor, or watch it if you like drums.

But this fell truly flat. It was really awkward and just not funny. I don't have time to point out all the reasons it fell flat but I think the bottomline is Fred did this as a "creative" project and didn't really think it all through. He probably thought "I love drums, and comedy, so let me combine them". Yes, and I'm sure you had fun doing the show(?) but combining those talents in this way didn't pan out. Portlandia is gold. Keep your comedic and musical talents separate please. Hopefully this will be a learning experience.

Classic Fred comedy. If you love Fred's style you'll love this stand up.

Has the brilliant Fred Armisen ever done standup? Don't know. But this misses the mark by a long shot. His character comedy work is some of the best comedy ever. Rarely does a comic get me rolling laughing. But this... The material is weak, the delivery is weak and he took a bit of an elitist tone. Doesn't seem to be his thing but I like that he was trying something new (at least new for me). The observational material about drummers and musicians is adolescent at best or something you might hear from your lame band mates. I found it ironic that he said he didn't get jazz and then did a brilliant bit on regional accents while moving effortlessly across a map of the US, riffing on the subtle differences from area to area, and state to state - which was pure jazz. I think he had fun doing it. If you're a big fan like I am, you're probably going to watch this anyway.

I've never heard of Fred Armisen before, and I hope to never hear of him again. This special was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. You seriously have to watch it to see how unfunny it is. Seriously, stop reading this review right now! Go pull up Netflix on your TV, in your web browser or w/e you use and put it on. If you can make it to the end of the special, you deserve a years worth of Netflix for free. Hell, I'll front the bill. It was so terrible, in fact, that I actually had an epiphany after making it through about 30 minutes of this dumpster fire of a special, I shut off Netflix, went into my garage, packed up my drum kit and threw it right in the trash. "Why?" you may ask... because this standup killed drumming for me. It made me realize that I've wasted 20 years of my life. I could've been doing so much more, I thought. So I immediately poured myself a nice, cold glass of Guinness and decide on a new hobby. Today, I crochet! That's right I took up crocheting. I took all my drumsticks and made Shepard hooks out of them (why waste good wood). Yeah, yeah, I know, it's very different from drumming.It's quiet, relaxing and keeps me off the internet, Netflix and anywhere near that godawful special.

I remember Fred from SNL. I like drums. I used to play drums. So when I saw this on Netflix, I was excited to have a great fun stuff combined with drums. Oh boy! Not sure what this was supposed to mean, but the show is painfuly slow, Fred seems uneasy most of the time and the jokes? Why on Earth, just after a hardly acceptable funny intro, he starts to mimic literaly all accents across US? Where's the connection? Just a stuff to kill the time. Then, we have the drums. Fred is OK on the instrument but plays quick snippets, but nevermind - he has guests. Cool - Tomas Lang, Tre. The joy is quickly over when you realize they're only playing sidekicks in a dialogues that do not even make any sense. And the ending bit, with everyone playing the same stuff? Come on, Fred! After 30 minutes into the flick, I was in agony. It was so painful to watch, that I nearly gave up. Bonus - there are only 2 funny bits - and those are the clips from visiting a drum/music store. When Vinnie Colaiuta showed up in the ending, I knew this was the only highlight for me. Totally wasted opportunity. Pitty.

Thought this was gonna be a brilliant twist on comedy and a specially humoured piece for drummers, which don't get me wrong it was fun for drummers... for about 15 minutes in total... then it was all a bit mixed up really... Going through decades of drumming with the drum-sets in the middle was a let down... although he outlined a cool concept, it was just a little dry for comedy. Tbh I thought he was going to invite audience members to play and do a little maestro bit. Guests were a real buzzkill for me... all the guests came on and did some very damp jokes with FA but none of them were really that funny for punchline humour. He 'bigged' up Thomas Lang and gave him a good intro... and he didn't play drums until the end, WTF! They did some quirky story bit with a script and it was jut cringy really, he's a drummer, and he was announced as an amazing drummer. And only one drum beat was played by him. The three guests came back on stage and did a beat between the four of them all at the same pace. Great! A bit of drumming to end this horror-show! Wrong. Again. Well correct but man oh man did expectations (again) go too far. He shouted each name out and they played solo for about 5 seconds each, but there no fills or bits, just the same beat. I'm a drummer and for me I'd be bursting to do that if you were told to play the same beat over and over and not give those Toms a good seeing to! Overall; A full viewing is not not recommended, for lovers of drums or comedy. Sorry.