Netflix tours the world with 47 comedy specials
Sets will be taped at Montreal's "Just for Laughs" and other festivals.
With recent and upcoming specials from Dave Chapelle, Ellen Degeneres, Patton Oswalt and others, Netflix has discovered that nothing is as binge-able as standup comedy. It's now taking that philosophy farther and wider with 47 half-hour episodes featuring comedians from the US, UK, France, Australia, Canada, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Many of the episodes will be taped at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal (with others shot at São Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai and Amsterdam), and all will be released simultaneously in 2019.
The specials will feature up-and-coming comedians including Chris D'Elia, Neal Brennan and Nicole Byerfrom from the US, the UK's Nish Kumar (above) and Joel Dommett, Shirley Souagnon and Jason Brokerss from France, and Loyiso Madinga, Ivan Decker and Moayad Alnefaie from Africa, Canada and the Middle East, respectively, among many others (see here for a complete list so far).
Netflix recently relaunched Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (to mixed reviews) noticeably using it as a forum to highlight other Netflix shows from comics like Hasan Minhaj and Neal Brennan. It's nice to see, then, that it's also trying to surface lesser-known talents both locally and across the globe.
"Few things are better than discovering a new comedian you love," said Netflix's Lisa Nishimura. "With this event, we're creating a true comedy festival experience for our members where they can scour the globe from home to find some of the freshest voices in comedy."
