Brad Howe’s Live at the Legion Is as Cool and Refreshing as a Light Beer

What makes a comedy special good? Is it about how much you laugh? Or is it about your point of view being challenged, or the themes it explores? Brad Howe’s comedy special Live at the Legion flies in the face of these trivial questions, because Howe knows that all a good comedy special need to do is foster a vibe—and boy can he do that. 

Howe will be familiar to fans of Joe Pera Talks With You, in which he appears as Brad Cam, the slickest man on the dancefloor. He’s been putting out hilarious videos for years as various characters, often nostalgic pastiches, and for Live at the Legion he takes the best of these bits and weaves them together. While he performs under his own name and draws on some autobiographical details, the Brad onstage is a carefully distilled character, a tribute to the salt of the earth New England men who have above ground pools and know who their top three Playmates are without having to think twice. Howe revels in their idiosyncrasies, but he’s not making fun of these guys; a portrayal that feels this lived-in comes from a place of love. 

From the jump, Live at the Legion sets the scene (New England, 6:59 p.m.), with languorous shots of a small town at dusk. Once we’re in the venue itself—a familiarly wood paneled local branch of the American Legion—Howe and director Sebastian DiNatale (The Daily Show, Ronny Chieng: Speakeasy) hit us with a slew of visual gags before the comic jumps straight into his song “Pencil Neck Geek.”

The Legion is populated with a colorful cast of characters—Long Legged Lorraine, his ex-stepson Finn, his dad Stan (who has to be his actual father, the family resemblance is uncanny), and plenty of others—that help Howe breathe life into the special. In less than 45 minutes, Howe crafts a whole persona and community for us to love, and that is no small feat (yes, this is me saying I’d love for him to have his own TV show). 

Most of Live at the Legion unfolds like a series of sketches as Howe paints scenes with his excellent physical comedy and exquisite word choice. His vocabulary feels like what the character Brad would actually use, as do the subjects he explores: an  L.L.Bean modeling audition, a reenactment of him at the lawn seats at a Doobie Brothers concert, his signature pick-up move (the Smoke and Wink). Howe commits from head to toe, with uproarious results. There are also plenty of Easter eggs in there for longtime Howe fans, like when Brad talks about being a Little League coach, his love of pencil dives, and his father’s drone obsession. 

Live at the Legion might not be the most laugh-out-loud funny special of the year, but it sure as hell is the most charming and heartwarming. Let’s raise a light beer to the goofy beacon of hope that is Brad Howe.

Brad Howe: Live at the Legion is streaming for free on YouTube.