Daniel Sloss at Mt. Rainier Hall Shibuya Pleasure Pleasure, October 15th 2019

Yes, the name of the venue is Mt. Rainier Hall Shibuya Pleasure Pleasure, two “pleasures”. This ridiculously named place hosted the latest Daniel Sloss special X at its stop in Tokyo. It was Daniel’s first show in Japan and as most comedians do, he started by describing some of his first impressions of this country. His acute observations couldn’t left the Japanese surprised reaction (eeee!) alone. He told a series of very funny jokes involving it, recounting a random conversation with someone at a bar and his reaction after showing him the thumbnail with his picture on the Netflix site.

Sloss is still in his twenties and has already two specials under his belt. Both of them are on Netflix, there’s where I discovered his comedy. Each one of those have a similar structure. They both rely on jokes and funny storytelling for the first 50 minutes or so and in the last 15 minutes they turn somewhat dark and serious, tackling subjects such as disabilities, death and failed relationships. He’s not coy about sharing details and sharing with his audience his own insecurities. Actually I think what is brilliant about his approach is how he dismantles the cockiness of the first part of the show with these self-reflective endings, putting forward a self-awareness of white privilege with a sense of humor and without being preachy about it.

Personally I think that with X Sloss perfected the structure and probably reached its outmost example. As the name hints to, this special deals mostly with taboo topics concerning sexuality, intimacy and ultimately gender issues. The shocking aspects of the endeavor are revealed from the beginning when he questions why a single man in his twenties can’t say he loves children without being interpreted as being a pedophile. This premise will eventually be turned inside out towards the end in regards of gender expectations concerning women. The starts sets up the tone of the whole piece brilliantly.

He then moves on to sexual intimacy making the audience somewhat uncomfortable when discussing pleasure and again reversing social conventions in terms of gender. He’s frank about his own take on audience participation and his dislike for any kind of audience abuse. For a show that feels carefully structured and scripted I was impressed with his ability to incorporate the patrons’ reactions without interrupting the natural flow of the show.

Without giving away the point in which the piece makes a turn towards seriousness, I’d say that a couple of the more eloquent reflections of the whole show are in this part. I will be using his argument of why the awareness raised by the MeToo movement is not a witch hunt. The joke about rape being unjustifiable, unlike murder, was a truly amazing one. You can tell that his material is not for the faint-hearted.

Even though his background couldn’t be further than mine I could sympathize and identify with his arguments. The reason why I’m saying this is because his approach was mostly from a cultural background perspective. His delivery is flawless, the structure of the show is brilliant and its impact is lasting, and yet one can’t help but thinking that the use of other people’s stories to hit that final note would have been even more effective having him put himself in the midst of the situation. His own responsibility in the scenario he built was kind of brushed aside. Of course he’s not responsible for what eventually happened, that’s clear. All I’m saying is that it would have been interesting to explore how that context and environment he describes could eventually lead up to the unfortunate situation at the center of his final story. 

I realize that I sound like I’m speaking in codes. I just don’t want to diminish the impact of this show by revealing its content. In a few weeks it will be available on HBO. As far as I know most of that network content is unavailable in Japan, but I’d like to be able to check it out once more. It’s stand up comedy at another level.
  
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