John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show

by John Delery

People planning to watch John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show may want to reserve their own sofas to assure getting a good seat to this comedy-show equivalent of an all-star game. The lineups for the series, which premieres Friday at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central, are teeming with heavy-hitting headliners.

Paul F. Tompkins, Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, Brian Posehn, Kristen Schaal, and Eugene Mirman are the showcase acts, but this comic magnet also attracts top pros Maria Bamford and Greg Fitzsimmons. Perhaps best of all, it spotlights newer comedians, including Matt Braunger, Hannibal Buress, Chris Hardwick, Pete Holmes, Hari Kondabolu, Nick Kroll, Matt McCarthy and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who emit lower celebrity wattage than their clever colleagues now but probably for not too much longer.

As entertaining as Bamford, Fitzsimmons, Kroll and Mirman are in the opening episode, the star of the premiere may be Oliver, best known as one of the many sardonic senior correspondents on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart: In his monologue, the droll Brit wit more than warms up the crowd; he brands his equally silly and perceptive sense of humor into the audience and his namesake series. Face it, most politicians are jokes, but Oliver makes politics funny.

John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show Item	Friday 11pm / 10c
Stand-Up: John Oliver – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
www.comedycentral.com

His gag about voting under the influence may definitively explain how George W. Bush got TWO TERMS in the White House. He reduces the prior administration to a hilarious and literal sick joke without screaming, swearing, snarling or losing his primary comic attributes: his insane likability and affability. He also displays his spontaneity while riffing amusingly with Kroll (In character as the deliberately foul, fem Fabrice Fabrice) about midway through the first episode.

So reserve an hour and a great, not good, seat for his show — now!