By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated September 21, 2020
Last month, South Shore native Joe List released his first hour-long comedy special, “I Hate Myself,” on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel. He had recorded it in March at his favorite club, the Comedy Cellar in New York, just before live entertainment shut down, and after his most prolonged period of working as a headliner.
And so it might sound strange when List says “there’s not many things I’m more grateful for” than the timing of the special. Since it dropped on Aug. 6, “I Hate Myself” has surpassed a million views on YouTube. List owes its success to arriving at a time “when everyone’s kind of around and looking for entertainment.”
The special also comes just a couple of months shy of his 20th anniversary in stand-up, which he started performing in Boston fresh out of Whitman-Hanson High School. It’s tough for List to wrap his head around the fact he’s been doing comedy for his entire adult life, but he’s thankful he got the opportunity to record “I Hate Myself” when he was ready for it. “A lot of times the industry pushes young, and they want youth,” he says. “But to me, the general public wants good. And good is usually 10 to 20 years in.”
To read the full article, click here:
Comedian Joe List now has his own stand-up special, but these are his favorites – The Boston Globe