Hats off to Langston Kerman. He is not deterred by being in the center of an intimate room. What’s more difficult for a stand-up set? Being on stage facing the entire audience, or having the audience circle you in a smaller setting? Depending on the nerves, I imagine that many comedians would struggle with the latter — seeing up close the reaction of the audience members must be horrifying if you are bombing. Langston needn’t worry in Bad Poetry — he embraces the room’s ambiance.
You may know Langston Kerman from shows like Insecure, High Maintenance, and Bless This Mess. Heck, it took me a minute to realize I saw him in The Boys Season 2 as Eagle the Archer, a Supe, and an aspiring rapper (according to The Deep, his music career is not going so well, as iterated in Season 3).
But Langston Kerman is still in the infancy of his career in many respects. He clearly understands comedy, and his writing is displayed in Bad Poetry. However, I’m always on the backfoot with these Netflix specials. Sometimes, I wonder, why now? Why does Langston need to delve into stand-up comedy on the biggest platform for it in the world?
But my back foot clearly moved forward in Bad Poetry. Langston Kerman understands how to enjoy an audience. There’s nothing abundantly special about the topics he raises; we’ve heard most of the male tropes presented here, though I like his unique spin on being mixed-race and not knowing what the color of his baby would be. He secures points there, purely for being relatable. However, I must add that Meghan Markle would wince at that joke.
The comedian manages to engage with the audience about his internal frustrations fairly easily when he goes into a rant about how his wife does not trust him to use a microwave and assumes he’d put metal in it. I was howling because these are the little nuisances that become the makeup of modern relationships.
His salient response to this ordeal is the punchline: if you want to have marriage and children with him but do not trust him to use a microwave, then why bother in the first place?
Langston’s next test is another Netflix special. There’s no doubt about that. This comedy writer deserves plenty more than a comedy club to showcase his talents. And that’s not a slight on upcoming career comedians—they all have to start somewhere.
But when I see natural comedic talent on stage, I want more of it. I said the same about Taylor Tomlinson, but on the flip side, I told the opposite about Matt Rife, who clearly needs to overcome his insecurities about brand identity.
Overall, Langston Kerman: Bad Poetry is a success, as the Netflix stand-up model continues to pay dividends and showcase lesser-known talent.
