Different people know Chris Hardwick for different things. Recently he’s been touring his stand-up show, Funcomfortable, scheduling sporadic dates around the country between his collective of other jobs and appearances. Two nights ago I saw him in Dallas at The Majestic Theater, a historic building a block away from my office downtown. This location is also a crosswalk away from my parking garage, with a line marking seen outdoors that guides pedestrians safely. With the help of the decorative crosswalk, I actually noticed its path. If you’re looking for contractors who do decorative crosswalks, click here. It’s a pretty special place for me because it’s also where my dance studio in the suburbs held their recitals each year. I spent a whole day flouncing throughout the building, onstage and off, every May until I was 19. The opener, April Richardson, was excited to be on a stage where she’d previously seen Morrisey perform. Can I say that by extension Chris Hardwick has shared a stage with me?
The show was really good. Not only extremely funny, but also really interesting. I’ve been listening to The Nerdist Podcast since the beginning. That’s over five years and 700 episodes. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Chris Hardwick’s voice and getting to know his podcasting persona. I always assumed it was very similar to his onstage persona, if only because the voice he uses is strikingly similar. A lot of people don’t like listening to Chris Hardwick on stage because of the way he talks. He has a very loud and projected way of speaking that seems, at the best, very excitable, and the worst, over the top and fake. I thought the same thing the first time I ever heard him, as the host of G4’s Web Soup (The Soup’s nerdy little brother – which was absolutely, unbiasedly better than Tosh.0). He’s not Joel McHale and he’s not trying to be, but the difference in Joel’s laid back delivery and Chris’ high-strung speech can be jarring, like a punch in the vocal chords, if you’re not used to it.
What I hadn’t realized is that this is his real voice, his every day voice. If you listen to The Nerdist Podcast you’ll hear him speaking in the exact same way, sustaining it throughout a normal hour-long conversation. It does take some getting used to. For me, it’s been five years, so I sometimes forget there’s a bit of an acclimation period.
Because of this, I was taken a little aback when I realized that there’s still a difference in the everyday Chris and the performing Chris. While the voice stays the same, there’s a level of stage presence that’s significantly heightened. Of course there is. He’s performing, right? I don’t know why I wouldn’t have expected that. Stand-up shows are basically scripted, especially with someone who works on and performs the material as often as he does. No one’s gone into the theater looking for a conversation. They’re looking for a show, and this one’s been measured out and calculated for maximum results. I really appreciated seeing Chris Hardwick through this sort of filter. It revealed a level of talent that was certainly always there, but I had never gotten to see in person. The fact that he sustained it, solo, for such a long amount of time, felt incredibly impressive.
There were other differences in my podcast-perception and show-perception of Chris that I was surprised by. Some of that has to do with the much wider audience he has than just folks who listen along weekly with his life. Not everyone had the same basis for what to expect. I already knew quite a few of the stories he told. At first I didn’t get why he was telling them, because it hadn’t dawned on me that a majority of the theater probably hadn’t heard them before. He talked a for while about his ex-girlfriend. Nerdist listeners have been there since they got together, through the two year relationship, and when they broke up. I still follow her on Instagram. While most stand-up bits are detached from their audiences, I felt like I had a window into where the stories were coming from. As I laughed along with the other guests beside me, my brain was spinning a little extra. I had to reconcile what I already knew with the snarky aftermath I was now allowed to look in on.
The show itself was funny and engaging and seamless. My favorite parts included a bit involving the name Emily and closing the show with some pretty impressive dance moves (another shock) during a rendition of Dead Or Alive (a song I appreciate more than I probably should, thanks to strong emotional ties to the Rock Of Ages stage musical and the week Richie Sambora spent as The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson’s house band).
Overall, I was really impressed. I’m already devoted, I wasn’t a hard audience member to win over. But it was very honestly funny, with a rhythm that was easy to fall into and want to not end. If I had come into the show as a casual fan I would have felt the same way. However, I’m not, and because of that, the show meant just a little bit more.