Summary
‘Deon Cole: Ok, Mister’ is a steady and confident Netflix special, like Deon’s previous two, and the comedian’s style remains relaxed and timeless.
Deon Cole is a seasoned comedian, which based on his third Netflix special, Ok, Mister, is not an adjective he’d like. He prefers “vintage”, which is, at least according to him, a surprisingly respectable way to refer to older women.
But Deon’s comfort and experience behind the mic is what makes this hour, like Cole Hearted and Charleen’s Boy before it, so enjoyable. He’s comfortable with his audience and their boundaries and expectations; he’s as comfortable with his style and material as they are. It’s a nice symbiosis making for a relaxed special with dependable laughs — if a slightly limited subject pool.
If nothing else, Deon is getting older, and most of the material in Ok, Mister revolves around that concept — even the title is plucked from a bit about how young women should refer to older men who hit on them to scare them away. Deon’s dating preferences are changing — he no longer wants to see women who don’t have parking spaces in front of their buildings, who have baby hair on their faces over the age of 40, and who keep their homes too hot or too cold. He’s becoming picky, all while remaining — it seems, anyway — quite defiantly single.
The comedian’s observational style — halfway between one-liners and longer-form storytelling — is perfect for this since it can bounce from one subject to the next with relaxed momentum. There are no lulls in Ok, Mister. The pace is steady and only slows down for slightly longer bits, like one about his car being fitted with a BAIID (Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device) after two DUIs and another about the viral Rose sex toy that may soon make men obsolete.
There’s nothing to worry about here. If someone was looking to be offended they’d take issue with the way Deon can describe women, but those people shouldn’t be watching comedy anyway if that’s what they’re looking for. Besides, his material is never mean-spirited, though it can be facile for long stretches. But the hit rate is high. You don’t get three specials on the world’s biggest streaming platform if you’re no good.
You can tell in the more playful — and now familiar — bit where Deon pulls out a piece of paper with some jokes to workshop, warning the audience that if they don’t like the raw material it’s fine since they never have to see him again. But these aren’t proto-jokes. They hit just as cleanly and easily as the rest of the set, with Deon’s just-right facial expressions and physical embellishments doing the extra heavy lifting where required.
At this point, you already know if you’ll enjoy Deon Cole: Ok, Mister or not. It doesn’t have the personal angle of Charleen’s Boy, but the raunchy but relatable sweet spot will be familiar, and the steady hand of an industry veteran will capably steer you through. It won’t set the world of comedy alight, but it isn’t supposed to. Sometimes, the vintage models are what we need.
