This month Mick watched comedian Bo Burnham's one hour Netflix-exclusive special Make Happy.

The thing about comedy specials is you usually know what you're getting: someone standing on stage with a microphone and telling jokes. If you're familiar with the comedian, you may be able to further predict the content of the jokes in advance. Bo Burnham shatters the standard one hour stand-up format in this special, making for a one of a kind experience.

Available on Netflix worldwide June 3rd.

If there was one word to summarize what sets Bo apart from other stand ups, it's this: Showmanship. Dude knows how to put on a dynamic and engaging program with a hilarious blend of comedy, light shows, and music. It's particularly fitting because a major theme of Bo's work is the nature of performance and how in our modern society we are pressured into performing for each other at all times on the stage of social media.

There are points in this special where Bo gets serious, where he takes advantage of his place on the stage to do a little bit of social and political grandstanding. Immediately afterwards, he calls attention to how this kills the momentum of the show and wonders aloud as to how he will bring the audience back, making everyone laugh in the process.

Bo has a whip-smart sense of humor and isn't afraid to take risks. He plays with different formats in his jokes, using a mix of extemporaneous crowd-work alongside meticulously pre-prepared songs. One bit in particular that stands out in memory is a part where Bo asks an audience member his name, only to burst into a song about how he had sex with that audience member's mother.

Overall, Make Happy is a fantastic special. It's funny and thoughtful and it's very clear that Bo put in a lot of work and time to make this happen. Give it a watch and you'll find that you've never seen anything quite like it before.

Check it out!

It's been a few years since Sacha Baron Cohen has released a movie of his own, but 2016 has brought us The Brothers Grimsby (AKA Grimsby). This weekend, I went to the theater and gave SBC's latest flick a watch.

Nobby, a sweet but dimwitted English football hooligan, reunites with his long-lost brother Sebastian, a deadly MI6 agent, to prevent a massive global terror attack and prove that behind every great spy is an embarrassing sibling. Nobby has everything a man from Grimsby could want, including 11 children and the most gorgeous girlfriend in the northeast of England.

Cohen plays a working class football hooligan named Nobby Butcher that reconnects with his long lost secret agent brother. In spite of being torched by critics left and right, The Brothers Grimsby was actually a pretty good movie.

There's a strong blend of action and comedy with the classic Sasha Baron Cohen heaping spoonful of absurd nastiness. The movie opens with a particularly well choreographed first person action sequence. I was actually surprised by how well done the action scenes were throughout the tight 83 minute run time. The producers certainly spared no expense in making things as crazy and over the top as possible.

Of course, this being a Sasha Baron Cohen movie, there were plenty jokes, many of which push the envelope of basic human decency. Once scene that stands out in my memory involves an elephant and two men that need someplace to hide. I'll let you fill in the blanks from there, but I will say that it ends with the two men covered in a foreign substance that's white and sticky.

There are other scenes whose humor come from Nobby's bumbling attempts to be a secret agent. The writers take cracks at all of the classic spy tropes: gunplay, gadgets, and girls. Nobby tries his hand at these with varying degrees of success. A particularly funny scene has Nobby attempting to seduce an important target by adopting a Connery-esque accent and donning a silk robe. What nobody tells him is that the important target is actually just the maid trying to do her job.

Overall, I had a great time watching the Brothers Grimsby. Were some of the jokes off the mark? Yeah. Were some scenes depraved and disgusting? Of course. That's what you sign up for when Sasha Baron Cohen is the writer. But on the whole, I had a good viewing experience and left the theater satisfied. I can see why other people wouldn't enjoy this movie because it's definitely an esoteric subculture that Cohen is spotlighting. It's safe to say that most Americans know little to nothing about football hooligans. If you decide to sit down and give this a watch, I think you're gonna have a good time.