Chris Distefano has built up a huge following on social media, and has partnered up with comedians such as Sal Vulcano, Yannis Pappas, Matteo Lane, anr Mike Cannon to release popular podcasts. But does Distefano have what it takes to stand up on his own as a stand-up? Hulu certainly believes so, making him one of their first picks in their big push into stand-up comedy specials.
The Gist: This marks Distefano’s third solo special; his first premiering on Comedy Central (Size 38 Waist) in 2019 when he hosted a chat show for the cable network; he self-financed and produced his second, 2022’s Speshy Weshy, before selling it to Netflix.
In this special, he gets into more detail about his life as a white husband and father in a predominantly Puerto Rican family, how his Italian father has his own ideas about manhood that create comedic culture clashes, and how he tries to make sense of it all. All while trying to keep tabs on his energetic audience members.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: If you took away all of the physicality and exaggerated onstage behaviors of Sebastian Maniscalco, then you might imagine his point of view coming across something a lot closer to how Distefano delivers his point of view. Their befuddlements are quite similar, even if how they convey them seem starkly different.
Memorable Jokes: If you’ve followed Distefano’s career, you know that he married a Latina. Now that he’s also a father, he jokes that he considers all of his kids to be Puerto Rican, and between his wife and his children, he feels he’s no longer in charge of much. He has no empathy for childless friends because they get to enjoy freedoms he no longer does. He cannot watch what he wants to watch on streaming any longer, even if he wanted to. “i have quiet quit!”
Why even try if his daughter is going to “snitch” on him for being nice to a fan?
But he also feels like he’s doing so much better than his father, who would “always have the right intentions but the wrong moves,” making inappropriately funny jokes during tense situations in public; perhaps nothing as inappropriate or offensive as the time his father convinced almost everyone in Yankee Stadium that 12-year-old Chris had “special needs” mentally just to upgrade their view from the cheap seats to much closer to home plate.
Our Take: It has been a wild couple of years for Chrissy Chaos — not so long ago, he had barely more than a half-hour of material to shop around before convincing Netflix in part on the basis of his strong online following. Cut to this year, where his 51-minute set got snapped up quickly by Hulu, and in September, he’ll headline Madison Square Garden.
As popular as he may be now, however, Distefano doesn’t always have his finger on the pulse.
Early on in this hour, filmed just north of New York City in Westchester County, his declaration that “it’s over for white people” feels cognitively dissonant with where America stands in February 2025. That joke may have worked before the 2024 elections (and again in the near future, perhaps?!?), but right now, oof. “Make no mistake — we’re done,” he proclaims. I hear ya buddy. And yet.
His bit about a run-in with a barista feels too contrived to be believable or believably funny, even if it may be based in any truth.
And his jokes about getting sucked into social-media algorithms is a funny premise, but mined much richer by Ronny Chieng in his Netflix special Love To Hate It just a couple of months ago.
But Distefano somehow makes even his relative weaknesses work to his advantage by being self-aware and in the moment enough to poke fun at himself repeatedly. He reveals to us how producers instructed him to stay within the carpeted area onstage, as much as he wants to move about Tarrytown Music Hall. He interrupts himself more than a few times to check in one particular audience member who caught his eye for his leisurewear, calling him “coach” and asking him at one point to please untuck his polo shirt. The man dutifully complies.
Distefano acknowledges that the things he used to say when he was a teenager would’ve gotten him ostracized if the Internet was around back then to record it.
And in a peak moment of vulnerability, Distefano laments: “There’s sweat in my eyes!” Does he have a towel on a stool to wipe his brow, or even ask for one? Alas, no. That’s not Chrissy’s style. Rather, he boldly moves on: “I don’t care. I’m going to just do it til I’m f—ing blind.”
Our Call: In 2019, Distefano’s role in the rom-com Ode to Joy was “Staten Island Meathead.” That’s very much in character with his stand-up persona. Which means there might be an even split down the middle in which you either want to STREAM IT or SKIP IT, no matter what else I tell you.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.