Theo Von Allegedly Bombed His Netflix Special Taping, Apologizes to Crowd Afterwards

Turns out doing 11,000 hours of podcasting doesn’t make you better at stand-up comedy.

Published 2 months ago in Facepalm

Talk to anybody who’s been trying to make it in the comedy world for a couple years, and they’ll doubtlessly tell you about the “podcast problem” — or, more specifically, the “Joe Rogan” problem. This is where comedians who have podcasts become popular for their podcasts, lose the ability to do stand-up comedy because they’re too focused on their podcast, but then insist that they are the arbiters of what is and is not good comedy.

This results in a lot of stand-up specials that have 17 different variations of “Aren’t kids these days crazy?!” jokes while making frequent references to being “canceled,” despite having millions of dollars and a fully-produced Netflix special.

The latest victim of this thinking, it seems, is comedian Theo Von. While Von is doubtlessly a funny, likable dude, being likable doesn’t mean that you can just pull a full stand-up special out of your behind — but that’s what Von allegedly tried to do at his recent Netflix taping.

According to a Reddit thread full of people at the show, Von’s Netflix special taping was so bad that a decent amount of the crowd walked out.

“He didn’t know where he was in his set at any time, kept re-telling jokes, twice asked someone behind the stage what to do next, said multiple times ‘what’s next’ followed by cringiest/worst crowd work ever,” reads one comment. “I’ve never walked out of a show, ever. Lots and lots of people walking out with the same feedback of ‘that was terrible.’”

“I thought he was messing around the first few times he forgot the joke and was asking the producer backstage for help but then after the 8th time you really saw he didn’t remember the rest of the set,” added another.

Von himself appeared to realize that the whole thing didn’t go so great. In a video captured after the event, Von can be seen appearing to apologize to several crowd members for his performance, saying, “I don’t know what to tell you about that” before proclaiming that he’s “having a long month” and that he’s trying not to unalive himself.

To Von — I feel you. Stay strong, and if you’re not ready to record your Netflix special and need some time to work both the material and yourself out, there’s no shame in taking a break.