Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy review - an overlong, underwhelming time

Summary

Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy is a massive special that is far too long and a big misfire for a comedian that is typically firing on all cylinders.

Netflix stand-up comedy special Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy was released on October 18, 2022. Here is our official review.

Gabriel Iglesias, also known as “Fluffy,” has been doing stand-up comedy since he was 21. Fast forward 25 years, he performed in front of a sold-out crowd in Dodgers stadium for his third stand-up special, Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy for Netflix. Martin begins the special in the chair; if you know Iglesias’s work, you know exactly who that is. Following this, we get a car flying into space (is this F9) while “Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30” plays in the background.

The stage is massive (we are in a baseball stadium), and behind Iglesias is a massive cutout of his logo with two cutouts of his dogs. It’s truly an incredible atmosphere as the crowd is loud, and Iglesias is quite emotional, to begin with. I loved the opening a whole lot, and his stage is incredible.

I have one massive bone to pick right off the bat with this special that irked me. I listened to Gabriel Iglesias on Kevin Hart’s podcast a few weeks back, and he told the story about during the pandemic, Netflix had approached him about doing a special. So they lined up everything to do it in Texas, and as all systems were a go, Iglesias ended up with COVID himself, shutting everything down. Now mind you, I heard this on Hart’s podcast, so when you watch the special, he gives the SAME exact story and takes me out of the special right away. So sure, some of you are hearing it for the first time, but don’t give out the material (which most isn’t jokes nor funny) if you are going to be doing a big special about it.

Another big bone to pick was the special’s run time. I am not saying you won’t be entertained because Iglesias is an incredible storyteller, but a two-hour runtime? You will have to break this up into pieces to finish because the highs are high, but the lows are low. One of the bigger lows for me was Iglesias talking about cancel culture and how he doesn’t do politics, religion, or sports. However, in his special, he is quite political in several different bits. So either stay on one side or the other, but don’t announce you won’t talk about the stuff but then talk about the stuff.

One of my favorite parts of the special was talking about getting free stuff. We have all done something on social media where we tag a specific brand in hopes of them sending something to us for free. Iglesias funnily says, “yes, I am rich, but this is how you stay rich.” The other bit I loved was his story about offending boxer Canelo Álvarez. It wasn’t just that the story was funny, but how he broke it down was brilliant.

Overall, Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy is a special that you will watch once and forget about it once it’s done. Iglesias does a great job of blending stories and jokes, but due to the lengthy runtime, the special takes a massive toll on you. Nevertheless, I slightly recommend checking this one out.

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