Comedian Dan Licata’s Special Is Not Just For the Boys

My first introduction to Dan Licata was through his appearance as a radio DJ on Joe Pera Talks With You in arguably the series’ best episode, “Joe Pera Reads You the Church Announcements” (or, as I think of it, “The ‘Baba O’Riley’ Episode”). Licata’s screen time is fleeting but memorable, as he explains the song’s nonsensical title to an excited Pera. Despite also writing on the show, Licata’s own comedy is starkly different from Pera’s, particularly in terms of pace. There are few pregnant pauses in Licata’s debut special For the Boys, with the former Saturday Night Live writer skewing closer to the frenetic energy of frequent collaborator Conner O’Malley as he shares his shrugging, goofball perspective.

For the Boys was filmed in front of an auditorium of 15-year-old male students at Licata’s alma mater, Amherst Central High School in Buffalo, New York. We’ll get more into the choice of setting and audience later, but suffice it to say that they’re both excellent, particularly because Licata’s set leans heavily into a crassness most commonly associated with teenage boys. Sophomoric humor is beautiful in its simplicity. I don’t want to over-intellectualize it too much; we all know that a good gross joke is a joy to behold. 

Licata performs as a heightened, blustering version of himself, his persona coming across like a stoner friend of AJ Soprano’s who never quite grew up. Sprinkled with malapropisms and his unofficial catchphrase “You know I had to do it to ‘em,” Licata’s hour is made up of once-off stories that are all hyperbole and unbridled vulgarity. The high-achieving, ambitious high school students further highlight Licata’s own waywardness. He likens himself to Jackass’ Bam Margera at one point, and doesn’t shy away from dipping into the sadder side of a Margera-type figure. He’s self-deprecating, but not dunking on this kind of dude, either; there’s an inherent empathy that keeps anything from feeling mean-spirited.