James Acaster’s Recognise Is Cleverness Done Right

Netflix’s strategy of releasing a new comedy special as frequently as it checks its phone has pros and cons, as everything does. Something that really works in the favor of both the audience and comedians is that there’s only a handful of big name, stadium-filling comedians out there, and only a few of them are American. Netflix has become a great opportunity for less established comedians who maybe wouldn’t find a home for their specials otherwise. I’m not saying the lineup is perfect and doesn’t skew heavily in certain directions. But you can only do so many specials that start with strobe lights and shit before you have to seek out someone a tad more intimate, and a tad more interesting and maybe a tad less famous—at least in the states.

The other thing that happens when you program, say, two Dave Chappelle specials to drop at the same time is that you’re constantly having to one-up yourself to keep that big event aura going. So I’ll admit to being a little reticent upon learning that all four of James Acaster’s specials would be debuting at once under the title Repertoire. Having watched the first installment, Recognise, I’m so glad I have three more of these to go.

Acaster is a young man, and so, obviously, brings a young man’s energy. He’s got that Bo Burnham hair thing going on, as well as the ability to silence his opening music with a stab of his hand. He starts the show on his knees to both deliberately throw us off and set up a Chekhov’s Gun with a looong barrel—one that travels all the way through a long, insane opening story about free bananas.