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No One Makes a Meltdown As Smart or Funny As Gary Gulman
Unpacking the brilliance of the stand-up’s famous Trader Joe’s bit.
He could have played it safe in alternative rooms, where his intellectual writing style would have found a comfortable home, but instead he pushed his heady, intricate monologues in front of tourists and first dates at the Laugh Factory and the Comedy Cellar, 24-hour party people at Dublin’s in Hollywood, and stadiums full of Dane Cook fans on the Tourgasm tour in 2005. It’s his willingness to hone ambitious writing in the wind tunnel of mainstream venues until he nails the perfect proportion of smart to funny that makes his 2013 John Oliver’s New York Stand-up Show performance, “Meltdown in Trader Joe’s,” so successful. At 2:55, Gulman garners another applause break as he describes his fellow shoppers switching their phones from “pic to vid.” No longer will his behavior be judged only by the people in this moment in this Trader Joe’s; it will now be visible to the satellite-connected citizenry of the globe and remain on our servers indefinitely for future generations to weigh in on.
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