Tony Hinchcliffe Live

“We’re living in crazy times.”

Inside the Helium Comedy Club on a warm Wednesday night in Philadelphia, the great stand-up, grand roast master, Tony Hinchcliffe, performed to an excited crowd who had been waiting since April to see him after his show was pushed back twice, reminding us multiple times halfway through his show that we were living in crazy times. Comparing Helium to a laser tag factory, Tony’s fans gathered in a low-ceilinged room in what appeared to be a clandestine meeting as the comic joked that we couldn’t repeat what we’d heard because he didn’t want us to get fired. That’s what was so special about being a part of that audience in that room listening to Tony Hinchcliffe perform his art, an art that consists of using words to make us laugh while somewhere outside “woke” people are quick to be offended and cancel. “We’re living in crazy times,” and we were all eager to have a good time and laugh, to release the weight of stress one feels from work and life. Tony mentioned his cancellation, which occurred last year after a clip went viral of him on stage referring to the previous comic, his opener, with an Asian slur. The cancellation led to him being dropped by his management and was most likely the reason his show dates kept getting rescheduled, however, cancel culture didn’t stop him earning a living.

I remember Trevor Noah once said on The Breakfast Club that we shouldn’t just fire people after a racist comment and cast them away. What does that do? Instead, we should teach the person and give them an opportunity to learn and grow. There’s a really good break down of Tony’s controversy in a Patreon clip of comedians Andrew Schulz’s and Akaash Sing’s podcast Flagrant talking about how, yes, what Tony said was wrong, but knowing his brand (he has a wildly successful long-running live podcast Kill Tony where he flexes and builds his roasting skills), knowing his comedy, knowing him, he didn’t come from a hateful place. It’s a nuanced situation as the opener who Tony was talking about was making jokes about white people in his set. He had also been on Kill Tony before and had opened for Tony in the past at Tony’s request; they knew each other. There was no intent to be racist but to roast. In the act I saw live, Tony said he believed we’re in the comeback era—looking around at his sold out show, I believed he could be right.

If you’re not familiar with Tony Hinchcliffe, he’s a witty wordsmith who wrote for many Comedy Central Roast specials. I first heard of him when I saw his comedy special One Shot, which had me howling with laughter from beginning to end because I’d never encountered anyone describe himself so brutally and comically. After that one hour special, I thought I had never seen anyone funnier. The set he delivered at the Helium was impressive and flawless—real high level writing. He’s a professional who’s so visibly comfortable on stage after doing it for more than a decade that he makes making people laugh seem effortless. He even had to remind one of the audience members to leave the funny to him because he knows he makes it look easy. His set was tight yet flexible enough to dip into crowd work, which he did seamlessly looking for opportunities to play with the audience. But his fans know his roasting skills so well that the problem Tony encountered was that no one wanted to speak and fall in his trap. If he heard a whisper and called the person out to repeat what they said, he was only greeted with silence. He riffed with the audience members sitting up front, nailing how one man’s Phillies outfit meant he was ready to play ball and how another’s demeanor gave school shooter vibes as he placed the microphone stand in front of the man to give himself a split-second shot of fleeing if the man stormed the stage.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by how well Tony works with people. My husband, who’s an avid fan of Kill Tony, had told me the premise of the live show: Tony and his producer Redban sit on stage with one or two guest stand-ups as Tony pulls names out of a hat and they then receive the opportunity to deliver a one minute set. I saw an episode before seeing Tony live and I understood why people like Joe Rogan describe the podcast as one of the best shows out there, especially for comedy. Tony is giving golden opportunities to unknown comics—some who have been doing comedy for years and just need a chance to be seen. When the comic taking the stage is funny it’s great because that person’s life just changed; when the comic is bad…that’s when shit gets entertaining and you see Tony, the killer roast master, come to life. He has a few regulars who come back to the show to perform a new minute of comedy. Two of those regulars, Hans Kim and William Montgomery, have been opening for Tony on his tour (and have opened for Joe Rogan at his arena shows). Both were at Helium opening for Tony. They were each greeted by the familiar audience to raucous applause, which reminded me again how powerful podcasts are because they directly impact ticket sales, garnering faithful fans for comics. Between the two openers, my favorite was Hans Kim.

I was so happy I watched Kill Tony before the Helium show (and given a pretty good background story by my husband) so that I could appreciate how meaningful it was for Hans to be there. He had been doing comedy for eight years and living in his car when he made it onto Kill Tony. Now he’s traveling the country, making a name for himself, and regularly performing on Tony’s podcast. Hans opened the show and had great material, pulling from his experiences as an Asian in America, and crafting jokes that really had me laughing. My favorite from his set was when he said how great it was that the new Little Mermaid was black because now black people have someone to look up to…then proceeded to rattle off a looong list of real-life black figures black people have to look up to. I was cracking up as he just kept on reciting a litany of black figures in history and present times and how, finally, we have a fictional black person to add to the list. I was impressed by his humor and how enraptured he—in addition to William Montgomery, with his unruly energy—had the audience. It was an altogether amazing show. There’s nothing like attending live performances, the energy that’s exchanged between the artist and the audience member creates a communal experience that we just don’t get that often. I loved looking around the club watching everyone else enjoy the show, laughing unabashedly. It felt like such a privilege to be in a room with people who all understood the intention of the art we were witnessing, which was to entertain us and make us laugh. We enjoyed when Tony did what he does best, which is to offer blunt, honest jokes, leaving the audience on a high when he listed the top two or three worst people, among them Amy Schumer. It might sound mean but it was funny.

“We’re living in crazy times.” Laugh while you can.