Did you know Kevin Hart‘s Hartbeat shingle inked a deal with Hulu this year to launch half-hour stand-up specials from Hart’s LOL (Laugh Out Loud) Network? They’ve already started bringing two installments each month, and this month’s duo includes perhaps the most TV-famous name in the bunch in Saturday Night Live cast member Devon Walker.
The Gist: Devon Walker was a writer for the shows Big Mouth and Everything’s Trash before getting cast on SNL in 2022 before Season 48.
So this half-hour might be the most a lot of America has seen of Walker solo onstage as a stand-up, outside of his previous shorter sets uploaded online via Comedy Central.
Note that Walker’s set, as with the other nine in this series, was filmed last summer during Hartbeat Weekend at Zouk Nightclub within Resorts World Las Vegas. So don’t expect anything too topical here, and without the broadcast network standards, Walker feels free to let loose with jokes about what reparations really should look like, what he’d do with a billion dollars, and his encounters on SNL with the likes of Chris Rock and Mick Jagger.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Remember Def Comedy Jam? What if you took that concept, but instead of an intimate Brooklyn stage with a raucous crowd, you took the whole thing to a ginormous Las Vegas nightclub where the stand-ups are separated from the audience, and the audience may or may not be dialed in for comedy?
Memorable Jokes: Though he doesn’t ever say Chris Rock’s name, Walker’s “I see why Will Smith hit you” crack leaves no doubt about it.
It’s part of a bit in which Walker dishes about being in close proximity to so many famous people, even before SNL 50, has led him to conclude that he doesn’t wish to be famous himself now. Although he wistfully regrets the chance he had to be alone in a men’s room in 30 Rock with Mick Jagger. And he makes a point of pausing to look and point into the camera to suck up to the celebrity behind LOL Live, joking that not all celebs are bad news: “Except for Kevin Hart. You’re one of the good ones.”
Getting SNL also taught Walker a painful lesson about his relationship with his father.
Does that also explain why he never learned gang signs growing up in the suburbs?
One thing’s for certain: Walker wishes he could see NBA players actually fight, or even kiss, because in the meantime, it’s making him laugh for the wrong reasons watching pro basketball players pretend to scuffle.
Our Take: If not for LOL Live, we might never have gotten to hear Walker’s take on SNL about wanting to own a white slave if he were a billionaire, or how he justifies giving black Americans “one evil year” as a compromise on reparations.
But LOL Live simply isn’t a great showcase for Walker, or many of these other comedians, for that matter. The setting isn’t conducive to comedy. Walker and Sydnee Washington (also debuting in August) stop to mention how tight and awkward the live audience is at multiple points. You could sense it even just watching onscreen, though. The ceiling is too high. The sound too cavernous. The audience either too far away, and also in some respects, for some awful reason sitting in spacious booths yards behind the stage? I know Hart filmed a special at Resorts World and Hartbeat Weekend probably was locked in to that location, but they could’ve and should’ve made better arrangements to better hype up these mostly aspiring comedians.
Otherwise this series pales in comparison to Netflix’s The Standups, or HBO’s 2 Dope Queens stand-up showcases, or virtually anything else. And especially Def Comedy Jam.
Our Call: SKIP IT. If you want to enjoy Walker’s comedy, seek him out live on his own terms, or look up his Weekend Update appearances on SNL.
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.