The hundred-some-odd words here expended describing 2010’s Last Comic Standing winner Felipe Esparza’s stand-up act could probably be used to transcribe two or three of his jokes verbatim. Good ones, too. But we’d never tell them like he does. His precise writing and off-kilter delivery might invite comparisons to Mitch Hedberg or Steven Wright, but it’s hard to imagine either of them hosting — as Esparza does — a podcast called What’s Up Fool? featuring episodes with the theme “Cholos: Where Are They Now?” And as good as he is with a one-liner, it’s impossible to imagine anyone but Esparza, as he does on Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening, telling a 12-minute story about biting a dude’s ear off in a street-fight while high on PCP and making it into something uplifting. Exactly the kind of joker we need right now.
