Langston Kerman’s ‘Bad Poetry’ Is A Comedy Debut Worth Writing Home About

Langston Kerman convinced his mother-in-law to put him in charge of her dating apps — bad news for her prospective suitors but good news for comedy. Kerman leads off his new Netflix special, Bad Poetry, by not only explaining how he’s seducing men on an elderly woman’s behalf but by playing their lovelorn audio messages as well. 

An invasion of privacy? Elder abuse? Sure, that’s why it’s fun. And it’s what makes Kerman so interesting as a stand-up — he’s believable as the guy to whom you’d entrust your romantic future. Yet he’s enough of an impish a-hole that you’re not surprised when he publicly embarrasses the dopes with their clumsy messages of love. 

In that way, he’s not unlike John Mulaney, a comic who intuitively seems like a good dude even while he insists he’s a borderline criminal. Mulaney is the first-time director helming Kerman’s first comedy special, and it’s easy to see why they fit. Mulaney, who admits he didn’t do much here other than help Kerman pick a shirt, told Vulture that Bad Poetry “very much reminded me of this special I did in 2011, New in Town. I was like, Langston is really sought after as a writer and actor as well, and everyone knows he’s a good stand-up, but he’s got a great hour that’s got to get out. And what I felt when I recorded my special was, This is everything since I started stand-up.”

Unlike Mulaney’s last few specials, shot in tailored suits in front of huge theaters, Kerman’s initial outing is filmed with a handheld camera in a colorful Chicago bar. From the tiny stage, you can see patrons at the rail having a drink while Kerman spins comedic tales about meeting Forest Whitaker at an IHOP or heckling an adult softball league while zonked on mushrooms. The stories’ comic specificity recalls Mulaney or Nate Bargatze — the hilarious tales would never actually happen to you but they feel like they could have. 

No Mulaney special has felt as intimate as Bad Poetry, mostly because Kerman’s comedy is more vulnerable. He doesn’t hide behind irony like Mulaney, who keeps his distance even when he’s confessing his addictions. Kerman doesn’t exactly wear his heart on his sleeve, but when he jokes about a young poetry student hurting his feelings (he used to teach high school English), you genuinely believe it. 

Mulaney told Vulture that he looks at a comedy special like a music album and that he believes every “track” on Bad Poetry is a hit. Mulaney’s right — story after story, bit after bit, Kerman nails it, including a killer gag about his mom marrying a disgraced NBA mascot. I won’t give away the jokes, but you can prepare yourself by looking up “Benny the Bull” on Wikipedia and scrolling down to the scandal section. 

Kerman’s way with words shouldn’t be a surprise — he has a bachelor’s degree in English and an MFA in poetry. “Poetry and comedy come from the same sort of touch point as an art form,” the comic told Vulture. “They’re both just taking a narrative and making it hyperbolic.”

Kerman takes it one step further and makes the narrative hysterical as well, charming us with Bad Poetry in a way that could make a mother-in-law blush.