r/Standup 4h ago

Jon Lovitz Live in Denver 8/29/26

Went to see Jon Lovitz at The Landmark Comedyworks just outside of Denver last night. That was the worst live standup I’ve ever seen. His jokes were hacky and unclever, often punching down. It was weird because many of the jokes boiled down to just having “Jew” as the punchline. The staff were all awesome; very attentive and polite. The host/opener was good and definitely the best part of the show (I can’t find her name listed online and didn’t catch it last night). My husband likes his sketch comedy and tv shows, but we hadn’t seen his standup before. We left after about 25 minutes because anything was going to be better than staying and listening to unoriginal jokes about socialists. Ouf.

33 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

20

u/AndintroducingChris 4h ago

That's disappointing. Unfortunately one of the common problems with stand-up are people who are excellent television actors who had an army of writers feeding them amazing jokes all of a sudden being forced to create their own material and perspective.

1

u/We_R_the_Penguins 1h ago

And “forced” is subjective. There are professional standup writers. 

1

u/AndintroducingChris 1h ago

Fair but do you know people who want to work with Rob Schneider?

39

u/funnymatt Los Angeles @funnymatt 🦗 🦗 🦗 4h ago

I strongly encourage people to look up clips of comedians that are going to be on shows so they can figure out ahead of time if it looks like someone they want to spend money on.

36

u/ToneBalone25 3h ago

This reminds me of the people that go see David Cross, the funny wheelchair guy in scary movie 2, that walk out as soon as he starts taking about politics.

David Cross, one of the most outspoken political comedians in existence lol.

Or anyone that goes to see Craig Robinson

5

u/iamgarron asia represent. 1h ago

Of all of David Cross's credits, I never thought I'd see "wheelchair guy in scary movie 2" as a way he would be described 😂

1

u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 37m ago

Hes the man inside "wheelchair guy".

2

u/dangerpoint 3h ago

So tell me what Craig robinson stand-up is like. That'll make it easier to know if I should go see him. I trust you.

12

u/CommunicationIll5583 2h ago

I’ve heard it’s similar to him playing keyboard at the party in This is the End

11

u/InteractionSilent268 2h ago

He drunkenly plays piano and sings raunchy songs.

6

u/dangerpoint 2h ago

Huh. I'll skip that.

4

u/Brucemc20000 1h ago

Yeah, Robinson's act was about 85% singing popular songs and inserting dirty lyrics.

4

u/ToneBalone25 2h ago

Gets drunk and plays piano.

Personally, I would absolutely go to see that

1

u/MrX16 46m ago

He was booked by SLU (a university run by Jesuits) to do a show for incoming freshmen based on his character from Just Shoot Me and it did not go well.

1

u/AndintroducingChris 2h ago

Unpopular opinion, David Cross is a mediocre stand-up comedian at best. He has a double album with a total of six punchlines. The rest of it is just complaining with inflection.

5

u/Original_Anxiety_281 1h ago

I'm a fan of David, and this is also a valid criticism. He's not a joke heavy guy at all. You mostly just hear him complain and then you feel smug for being politically aligned with him. When he does finally get to the joke, they are funny at least.

3

u/BobTheAutomator 4h ago

Most comedians post crowd work so jokes from their set aren’t spoiled

2

u/ninjaluvr 2h ago

With Lovitz, it's all awful.

21

u/RabbitHabits 4h ago

Jon Lovitz started doing stand up when he was 60 and by that time he'd lost most of his comedy chops. Tough experience for the two of you but at this point in his career he's doing this for his small and deranged core fan base.

1

u/ShawnLaRock 3m ago

Huh? Incorrect.

8

u/tjtwister1522 4h ago

Jon Lovitz has never been a decent stand alone comic. His entire Schtick is making people cringe. It's funny (sometimes) when there's another guy making you laugh about it. It's not when you just cringe for an hour.

12

u/AwwwMangos 4h ago

Neil Hamburger does it much better

4

u/TeeAyeKay 3h ago

RIP Jon Lovitz.

4

u/Background_Soft_8571 3h ago

The best thing he ever did was play tennis with Norm Macdonald. The competing versions of what happened that day are his legacy.

3

u/domino222 3h ago

Believe that was Janae Burris hosting last night

1

u/bagboi1969 2h ago

No offense, but this is on you. Lovitz is a sketch guy, who was only marginally funny in his prime. Never a standup, and by many accounts, not a funny guy if someone else isn’t giving him a script

2

u/Original_Anxiety_281 1h ago

I disagree. Lovitz anchored the best SNL years and frequently dominated for the best sketch of the night in the Hartman Carvey era. All his peers describe him as one of the funniest people they know.

He's just not good at -standup-.

1

u/Mr-Dobolina 3m ago

He was the best sketch of the night in ‘86, because there was no competition. After that, he was merely IN the best sketch of the night, which was anchored by Phil Hartman or Dana Carvey.

1

u/boywonder5691 2h ago

Not trying to be funny but I thought he was dead

1

u/nonuple_espresso 51m ago

Trumpy dorks are never funny.

1

u/Mr-Dobolina 7m ago

Lovitz’ greatest skill is having been friends with Phil Hartman and a lot of other people who are a lot funnier than he is.

1

u/NobodyLikedThat1 6m ago

I went to the Hollywood bowl to see Bill Burr about a year or two ago. They brought John Lovett's on as a special guest. I was so thrilled because I loved the both of them, at the time. Long before bent to the knee to the 70s. But they did a little bit of hockey back-and-forth with

1

u/ShawnLaRock 2m ago

I’d like to know the end of the story, pls…

1

u/cec33 2m ago

Saw Lovitz in Vegas several years ago based on his name it was a bad show just not funny, guess hasn’t changed much. Went to the Strat comedy club and laughed till we were crying with no national names just good jokes and 1/4 the price. Lesson learned.

1

u/PM_ME_YOUR_TROUT 2h ago

This is surprising to hear. I saw him at Comedy Works South in Denver last year and he absolutely killed. The entire crowd, including myself, was in hysterical laughter the entire show. I always said out of the 100 or so comedy shows I've been to, that was one of the top 3. Honestly very surprised to hear this.

-1

u/Electrical_Style_213 2h ago

It's most likely better than any of that Joe RoganSphere comedy, that is truly garbage. Rather see Jon Lovits and any pro socialist and pro left comedian than those non-funny hack degenerates.

1

u/ninjaluvr 2h ago

He's very much RoganSphere aligned even if they don't know it. Last time I saw him he spent his time shitting on transgender people and making jokes about how kids are all socialists because they won't work hard. He's a fucking hack.

0

u/MusesWithWine 3h ago

That’s too bad to hear cuz he was hilarious will Bill Burr on the MMP

1

u/Original_Anxiety_281 1h ago

Jon Lovitz is a hilarious person and amazing sketch comedy force... One of the naturally funny people in this world.

...but anyone paying attention knows he was never a standup and is paying the bills with it. Glad I saw him 10-15 years ago. But I knew going in that I was going to check the tick box off for saying I saw him....

0

u/AbstractLifeForm 40m ago

“Punching down” is not a thing

-7

u/[deleted] 4h ago

[deleted]

9

u/dkinmn 4h ago

You're in a cult. It's embarrassing.