So. This is really happening, is it, universe? If you had asked me a month ago to picture my pipe dream scenario that I knew would never happen, it would be exactly this. A small, 21+ venue, announced with a decent amount of lead time. Bonus, it’s right next to the airport and the hotel is 3 minutes away from the venue…what the fuck did I do right? I never thought he would risk alienating his younger audience with a 21+ show, but I also knew there was no shot he would have a decent crowd unless it was full adults. My assumption was he would just keep doing stuff on the DL, and maybe if I was lucky he would have it recorded at some point. It was very funny to me that he bothered advertising his show in his youtube video, when the tickets had probably sold out before that video even went up. I think he must forget what a massive audience he has.
Needless to say I have a lot of Thoughts, also Emotions. Most are pretty scattershot, but there’s one topic that’s been simmering in my mind for at least a year or so. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if Danny was interested in pursuing comedy anymore. Discussing that work and speculating on how he might develop it has felt redundant. I need to talk about it at this point, though. I’m way too excited and curious to see how he’ll approach standup now, compared to years before.
Danny has always said his two biggest comedy influences are Bo Burnham and John Mullany. I can’t argue that, only he knows what he draws from when he creates. It’s interesting, though, and ironic given his youtube genre, that analytical commentary is not what I see him reach for in his overtly comedic work. It does come through in his music, in songs like Slime, Bag Tho, and Bad Boy. Still, it’s riffing on one observation, and making lateral moves with the jokes rather than diving deeper. That doesn’t make it inherently lesser or superficial, it just has a different focus. There’s care in the wordplay and puns, the concept is a theme to make jokes around – much like how he approaches his commentary videos.
His real superpowers, to me, are performance and creative, character driven storytelling. The two feed into each other, because his acting ability is the way he sells these surreal and over the top situations in his sketches. He might not realize it because it comes naturally to him, but there is so much specificity in his comedic acting, particularly the vocal delivery. I had to chuckle when I was watching Danny’s tier list of Bo Burnham’s songs from Inside, and he said he was jealous of Bo’s vocal control. “I could never do an evil laugh like that!” Bo definitely has a more theatrical style, but in terms of precision of execution I don’t see Danny as any less than. I think it’s a case of an artist being sensitive and hypercritical about an element of his craft that is especially important to him, and being blind to how other people perceive that strength.
My friend Laura and I will say “I an here!!” to each other on an almost weekly basis, but the way he holds his pauses so perfectly throughout this video is bananas. Especially “I have no tit. …capeesh?” A goldilocks length of silence.
Because of that set of skills and focus, the two comedians I personally see as stylistically closer to Danny are Rowan Atkinson and Buster Keaton. Now, when I was talking to my dad about this, he pointed out that both of them are mimes, at least if we are thinking of Mr. Bean for Atkinson. I would consider physical comedy a hidden power of danny’s, but it’s also under the umbrella of performance. If you want overt examples, look no further than his knockoff titanic video, the sexy rat walk… look up any of those out of context videos for him, and you’ll be surprised how much of the comedy is wholly or largely physical. It’s not all slapstick either. Just like I see in those two older comedians, he will tweak otherwise normal gestures to make them comedic, but subtly. One of my favorite Mr. Bean clips which embodies what I mean is actually from the London Olympics. Acting is not my artform so I feel out of my depth analysing the what he is doing, but I can say, at no point do I see him as Rowan Atkinson playing Mr. Bean. I just see Mr. Bean. That’s the definition of good acting I suppose, but it’s not something I feel all the time, especially from comedians. I felt it in the Last Night music video.
Buster Keaton is an especially fun parallel. I enjoy that they were born almost exactly 100 years apart, and they look VERY similar. But it wasn’t until I learned that Keaton’s nickname was “the great stone face”, and watched some of his full length films, that I was tempted to say — “Danny Gonzalez? Close enough, welcome back, Buster Keaton!” Like… I cannot express enough how Danny’s deadpan is the thing that will have me choking laughing. He still maintains a pretty dry delivery, but he used to really lean into it in the vlogs and sketches he was in while living in LA. That vacant look just slightly above the camera, not a single braincell firing…it wrecks me every time. I feel like him and Keaton also share a similar philosophy- that the humor comes from the intersection of silly and serious. Situations or characters are silly exactly because they exist in a serious or at least normal context. Similar to how the perception of a color is shaped entirely by the colors around it, the absurdity of something is not intrinsic, it’s referential.
One other thing Atkinson and Keaton have in common is that their most famous work appeals to both children and adults. I’ve had the thought for a while that Danny would make an incredible children’s entertainer, though I’ve always been hesitant to express it. It’s hard for me to detach from that idea because it was re-enforced by one of the most vivid visions I’ve had, that comes back periodically. I see him from off stage to the side, he’s in costume (it looks vaguely like fox szn, with the glasses and goatee and white coat). I don’t know if he’s on a stage though, because around him at about waist height is a gaggle of kids, laughing and bouncing around like this is Santa himself. The irony is, if you look in his eyes, you can see he might be having even more fun than the kids. He’s in character so he’s feeding that energy into the performance, but he is….soaring. Creatively, spiritually. It’s like this incredible wizard’s magic, to so effortlessly bring out that kind of joy in people. I’m jealous. With youtube, he misses out on that visceral, energetic feedback that a lot of entertainers thrive on. I’m excited for him to experience it more if he continues doing live stuff.
Hopefully none of this comes off as prescriptive, or like I’m trying to objectively define who Danny is as an artist myself. In situations like this, the best version of me would be similar to The Swiftologist. He will unabashedly gasp and gush about the new things Taylor puts out, but he is also incredibly analytical. He will give his opinions – not always positive – based on his deep understanding of the modern pop music landscape and his encyclopedic knowledge of Taylor’s work and career. I don’t claim to have that kind of understanding of comedy, or of danny’s career, but my intention is always just to share and explore the work of an entertainer I enjoy immensely, and am always rooting for. Selfishly, I’m optimistic that in trying formats like standup, his comedy will find its way to a broader audience. I’ll be there mentally doing that Will Smith showing something off meme. “See? See this guy? Didn’t I tell you he’s brilliant?”
Here are two clips of the swiftologist – the contrast between his cold, erudite media critic persona and the open hearted vulnerability that Taylor brings out in him always makes me smile.
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I want to include one other thing I wrote a little while ago, somewhat related –
I’m mentally preparing for danny to have a different kind of exposure, and emotionally preparing for people to critique him with greater or lesser degrees of intelligence and good faith. I like to think I’m enlightened enough to not feel defensive on behalf of an entertainer I watch. That would be peak cringe behavior, especially for a 33 year old. Me, cringe? Couldn’t be. But to be fair, the defensiveness part has rarely been tested. Danny just doesn’t have many vocal haters. There was one video I saw recently about Drew that was praising him for all the ways he was different and “better” than his peers (including danny) and…..I caved, I did leave a comment. I was nice, at least that was the intention, and I acknowledge I also had a subjective bias, but it was absolutely wall-of-text cringe. It’s not something I need or want to be doing, it’s never going to move the needle or be constructive.
Still, I think if there are comments I come across online that really get me, I’ll need to write letters I can’t send for them, or risk spontaneously combusting. In a perfect world I wouldn’t FEEL this way, but at least it’s all under the hood, and impacting my actual behavior less and less. It’s like those controlled maintenance wildfires. Here’s one now:
Angel: Even if the sentiment that commentary youtubers shouldn’t ever try standup is questionable, maybe danny would see it as a blessing that people are coming in with some level of skepticism. He is more likely to get honest feedback that will help him improve, and that could lead to greater success outside his existing fan base. Even if it’s a pretty silly thing to say, and was also clearly a talking point ripped from a video about kurtis without real understanding, people put out silly opinions on social media all the time. It really could not matter les—-
Devil: Destroy them in the marketplace of ideas. How dare they say an artist shouldn’t pursue an adjacent passion just because it might not live up to their personal standards and subjective taste. HOW DARE THEY SAY DON’T EVEN TRY?? “Your comedy relies on editing but don’t worry that’s not a mean thing to say, you are still a valid comedian, but don’t ever try to do live stuff because you will embarrass yourself.” My Brother in Christ, what? Would you tell a digital artist they should never try to paint with watercolor, because their style relies on filters, and it’s just not gonna be good without it? It’s a learning curve, and it will look different, and maybe to you and maybe even to the rest of the world its not as “good” but, like….shut the fuck up and let them make the art I want to make? Let them be “bad” at a new skill without assuming it’s an inherent lack of talent or ability, or just not “their style”. And what the fuck do you know about danny’s comedic style? Please, let’s get into it, mother fucker. Do you know the kind of work he’s done the past 10 years, or do you just know him as one of those commentary guys? DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT?? DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW LONG HE WAS DOING EXTENDED SKETCH VIDEOS AND HOW PERFORMANCE/DELIVERY IS ONE OF BEST SKILLS?? ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID??
Angel: ……….
Devil:….at least send them that clip of Justin Chad with a snarky comment for God sakes, ignorant fucker.
Angel: And this is why I’m in the driver’s seat, and you’re locked in the trunk.
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I’m taking a red eye flight that arrives at little before 6am. Hopefully I can get an early check in at the hotel. There’s a ton of places I’d love to visit in Chicago (that aren’t The Bean), I know they have at least a few really great art museums. Of all the “big” American cities, like LA or New York, Chicago is the most obscure in my mind. If I’m being honest, the image that comes up is like an old photograph of those late 1800s packing houses, just smog and industrial buildings. It’s the equivalent of when I had an elementary school penpal from …somewhere overseas, I can’t remember, and she asked me if I lived in a tipi. I’m so, so grateful and excited my friend Mel is able to come up – another case where my spidey senses paid off, and I randomly bought a second ticket without knowing why I felt the need to. She was the one to encourage me to send my emotes to danny, and was also a life raft of sane, adult discourse about the commentary boys in those first few years I knew them. She is a great writer, and has even deeper insight about danny’s comedy because of how much she knows about comedy as a medium.
The more I think about it, the more surreal it feels. I’m just genuinely so grateful. I’m going to be doing a lot of meditating and healthy eating and affirmations, so I’m in the best headspace I can be to fully appreciate this unexpected blessing.
I’ve been listening to a lot of hype EDM and D&B, matching my mood. When this came up in my Supermix on a long drive today, I said, Well Yes.
>>robyns_ramblings 