Let’s not act all shocked about sex anymore, okay? Everybody does it, or wants to do it. When people talk about “shock comedy” I just think of dicks, and not in a sexual way, but aggressive assholes (probably from the Northeast) who like being mean to people. Sue Smith talks about sex a lot, very bluntly, and I’m sure some would call her shocking. She’s not trying to provoke or offend or titillate, though—she’s just talking about what people do in the real world. She’s talking about life. She’s talking about reality TV and gluten allergies and butt stuff.
I can relate to the gluten allergy material I am a guy who had one (yes, had one—doctors can disagree). I can’t confirm that eating gluten with an allergy is like having sex with a guy with a big dick, but I get and appreciate the joke. There’s a lot of talk about dicks on here, and relationships, and making fun of frat dudes in Oakleys. Jokes about butt stuff and bleached assholes feel very of-the-moment, very 21st century. Smith references an episode of Girls, and it brings to mind an obvious comparison—if you dig Girls or Broad City or other honest depictions of twentysomething urban life, you’d probably like Slutty Pretzel.
Smith’s not a storyteller. She’s a joke-teller, with some one-liners, and although I wouldn’t call her delivery rapid-fire, there’s not a lot of breathing room between jokes. Perhaps that’s due to the format. I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to a stand-up EP before. It’s a good format for comedy—younger comics like Sue Smith don’t have to stress about having a full hour ready. Even with comics I like, an hour can often drag. You have to be really good at comedy to keep a baseline of quality over the course of an hour. Smith’s set never dips or slows down over these 18 or so minutes. It’s a great introduction to a promising young comedian.