Comedian Colin Quinn presents the history of New York, in particular its inhabitants and their unique character. Filmed live off-Broadway in 2016.
I've been a fan of Colin Quinn since his Tough Crowd days and really enjoy his cynical, quick-witted, knowledge-filled sense of humour and biting delivery. He employs these traits well in this homage to his beloved hometown.
You'd think a comedy routine that relies on stereotypes of the different ethnic groups that make up a city would be quite cringy and not-done, especially in this over-PC, being-offended-as-a-hobby day and age. Yet it works.
The trick is that while Quinn points out the traits of all the groups that combined to make the modern New Yorker, he doesn't put them down, celebrating them and showing how they contribute to the diversity of the city. It's funny without being mocking.
Not perfect though. Quinn's quickfire delivery is often too quick: you hardly have a chance to digest what he's said and in some cases it's difficult to even make out what he says as sometimes blurts out the punchline. That's the problem with having so many jokes and ideas running through your head: you just want to get them out all at once.
Tough Crowd also had this problem, especially as it was largely unscripted as he would deliver his joke before it was fully formed in his head. Here the jokes are fully formed but his delivery is so fast and intense that the audience can't always keep up.
It's a trade-off though. One of the best things about his stand-up routine is the intensity and if he slowed down to let the audience savour his jokes he would lose that edge.
It probably doesn't help that I'm not from New York so can't immediately relate to what he's talking about. The crowd, being from New York, would have had less of a problem.
Overall though it's still very funny and entertaining.
