First -- It IS a funny set from Ramy Youseff. I have no complaints about the comedy or Ramy himself. I thought he was funny and engaging.
But..... never really saw the crowd....
This is mostly filmed from 1 or 2 feet away... occasionally 5 ft away... There's no reason a comedy stand up special needs to have the comedians head take up 90% of the screen 80%-90% of the time. It was just FAR too close most of the time, and that made it uncomfortable to watch.
The lack of any crowd or establishing shots makes it SEEM like Ramy is performing in a room alone and someone has a finger on a laugh track button. The laughter starts/stops suddenly. There's generally no natural "trail off" most of the time. That makes it seem very unnatural. One could argue that there's no actual audience while Ramy is performing and any shots of the back of the heads of a crowd were added in post. If there was a split second where Ramy is actually speaking AND the crowd is shown, I must have missed it.
Please don't get me wrong. Some of the jokes are good, some were VERY good. As a "speech" it's funny and well written ...
.... but actually watching, as in looking at the screen, is a rather poor experience.
This special would be better served by an audio-only release. The way this was directed by Christopher Storer was a terrible disservice to Ramy.
