There are a couple of moments where Romano courts censure for oblivious-white-guy jokes (he tells an audience member in the first row at the Comedy Cellar that the guy was on the no-fly list the last time Romano did a special), but having established that he’s an idiot about most things keeps any sort of confrontational or nasty edge from developing. He tells us he killed a spider in the shower the other day because it saw him masturbating, and reveals that he keeps snacks under his bed to compensate his wife for subpar sex both scenarios could’ve been the A-plots on Everybody Loves Raymond, a sitcom that prided itself on having only three scenes per episode, and on avoiding sentiment whenever possible. The second half of the Comedy Cellar set and most of the Village Underground set are about Romano’s persistent mystification about what his wife wants from him (constant attention, for starters) and the varying levels of promise exhibited by his children (his high-achieving daughter is “the good one,” and his twin sons are goofballs). He advises the audience on the various stages of friend-making, noting that when you’re in your 20s, you make friends with people who can get you anything in your 40s, it’s lawyers (because of divorce, or needing to “get a picture of your dick off the internet or something”) in your 50s, you want to make friends with doctors. The first part of his set at the Comedy Cellar is about getting older. (“We are both gonna be disappointed,” he assures the first audience, responding to their enthusiastic applause.) He doesn’t seem to be trying very hard here, and the framework of the special allows for him to be just okay without the audience’s feeling cheated. His hyperspecific niche is something like “the funny guy you know in real life, but who doesn’t annoy you by always trying to be funny.” Fans of his stand-up as well as those of his long-running CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond won’t be surprised to learn that most of the material here is standard, Romano–style befuddled-husband-and-dad stuff, delivered without a lot of fuss over the wording. Romano’s entire career could be described as amiable muttering - the rueful but relaxed thoughts of a guy who’s happy, all things considered, and not unduly frustrated by all the things he knows he’ll never understand. After a preliminary bit of walking-and-talking that explains the premise of the hour-long special, Romano does about 20 minutes at the Comedy Cellar, then heads over to the Village Underground, muttering amiably as a camera crew trails him, and does a set there, too. Romano does sets at two New York comedy clubs, the Village Underground and the Comedy Cellar, which are, as the title suggests, around the corner from each other. Right Here, Around the Corner is more of a documentary of a veteran getting his feet wet again than a recording of a polished, intricately written bit of theater being performed for posterity. Ray Romano’s first stand-up special in 23 years is totally on-brand. Ray Romano in his Netflix stand-up comedy special, Right Here, Around the Corner.
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