Article by: Junior Flexwell
Brian Simpson is an L.A.-based comedian who describes himself as “the life of the goddamn party.”
After killing it on David Spade’s Lights Out, Simpson continued in comedy clubs from Vancouver to New York and is a regular at the World Famous Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Simpson’s past as a Marine Corp and a foster child also gives his comedy a possessed but poised angle that’s special and hilarious.
Recently, Simpson’s appeared on season three of Netflix’s new series, The Standups. His jokes range from his childhood to COVID and everything scandalous in between.
He opens with a bit about how America sent COVID checks out with speed but has yet to pay blacks reparations. The crowd agreed and applauded, which was beautiful. It gave him control of the room and the license to even more taboo topics like police brutality and protesting.
In an interview, once Simpson joked that he had been poor for most of his life until he got his check from Netflix. “It literally required me to grow up with my money almost instantly.”
This dynamic of middle-aged adulting translates on stage for Simpson. His jokes are fresh, but he’s a 39-year-old comedian, so he’s not exactly running or jumping across the stage. He stands in the same space for thirty minutes and tells it like it is - good, bad, and the ugly.
“If I have to call 911, I tell them to only send firefighters, they’re just as brave as police but they don’t kill us.” This joke was about ten minutes into the special that the crowd halfway laughed at. Brian doubled down. “I’ve never heard any reports of a firefighter being startled so he killed someone.”
I love that he broke that joke into two pieces to measure the crowd. Comedy has become a social metric to see what we can laugh at en masse, and Simpson pushes the envelope every time. I can't wait to see what he comes out with next.
If you want hear a lot more straight from the man himself, you can watch his full episode on The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify.
You can also check out Brian Simpson's set on Lights Out with David Spade here: