<!–>An early example is from the movie “Punchline,” when Tom Hanks chokes up telling a club audience that he disappointed his father, failing out of medical school:–>
<!–>In “Obvious Child,” Jenny Slate stops joking in one set to say she was cheated on. Things get dark:–>
<!–>After his jokes are met with awkward silence, Kumail Nanjiani pivots abruptly in “The Big Sick,” offering an apology and an explanation:–>
<!–>In the hit “Baby Reindeer,” the comic Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) breaks out in dramatic sobs and florid metaphors, revealing he’s the victim of abuse that has made him loathe himself. It’s a speech that would fit right into a clip at an awards show:–>
<!–>The latest example can be seen in the recent season of “Hacks,” where the usually jaded host Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) refuses the network’s order to fire her head writer, using her opening monologue to become tearfully sentimental and quit in protest:–>
<!–>Some scenes are more realistic than others, especially those that illustrate artistic evolution. In “Sleepwalk With Me,” Mike Birbiglia plays a struggling comic telling jokes that don’t connect. That changes after he takes the microphone off the stand and gets honest:–>
<!–>The epiphany is less personal than aesthetic. In the first episode of “Crashing,” Pete Holmes plays another green comic who goes more confessional, with the opposite result:–>
<!–>In real life, comics abruptly stopping their act to get soberly personal almost never happens, but there are exceptions. Someone like Jerrod Carmichael often aims for stand-up that has the feel of one of these intimate scenes, including his special “Rothaniel,” in which he divulges secrets between punchlines:–>
<!–>
–>
Source: Television - nytimes.com
