Review | Brad Williams at the Santa Barbara Lobero, January 6, 2024

It’s hard to do comedy in the age of wokeness, but Brad Williams’s set on Saturday at the Lobero showed that when delivered with enough grace and skill, just about any topic is fair game for guffaws, even in the days of easily canceled culture.

After solid short sets by MC Quincy Weekley (on wanting to be a father: “I want to meet my fastest swimmer before I leave town”) and opener JB Ball (whose newest comedy special, It’s My Privilege, is now streaming), Williams leaped on stage in high spirits, joking, “We’ve got two Black guys and a dwarf here tonight. You guys are hitting our diversity quota hard.” 

His good-natured set took on a wide range of subjects, from Internet porn (“I would be so much smarter if they would just put the news streaming across on PornHub”), disabilities of all kinds, irritation with his wife’s bitchy friend, and, of course, plenty of short jokes (“You know how good my life would be if I was into feet, with how low I am to the ground?”).

His infectious amusement at having one of his shows simultaneously translated into sign language, complete with hilarious physical comedy as he demonstrated the signs for Biden’s and Trump’s names, was highly entertaining, as were the many self-deprecating jokes he made — at his own expense, but with great reward —  including a laugh-out-loud demonstration (and more great physical comedy) of why he can’t jerk off while standing up because his arms are too short.  

By the end of the night, Brad Williams had the sold-out audience in his hand, ahem, anyway, with a fun, fresh take on life as we know it.