A review of of comedian Daniel Sloss and his “Dark” comedy on Netflix

By Colby Willis

Rated R

           

Standup comedy is a means in which people can tackle some of the world’s most depressing topics through the shared coping mechanism of laughter.

Daniel Sloss, a young Scottish comedian who is on the rise in America, touches upon such themes in

his first Netflix stand up special “Dark”. The title itself is a joke, Sloss has said, because he considers his stand up to be quite tame in his own opinion.

However, I was quick to realize that he may have quite the different idea of what dark comedy is to the general public. A start focused on culture shock and poking fun at religion got the crowd prepared for edgy comedy, while still being handled quite well by Sloss, towing the line between offensive and hilarious.

However, the second half of the show was a deep, personal, meaningful string of stories by Sloss about the nature of death and how it has affected him and those around him. I was blown away by this special.

Sloss was able to keep me laughing for the entire show while picking apart themes that should have been emotionally crushing. All of this was summed together with a hopeful message at the end that perfectly wrapped the special up. This is not an easy, light special, but is hilarious, profound, and as the title suggests, dark.