Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time Review

If you used to spend countless hours watching Comedy Central during the late-90s/early-2000s you probably spent more than one evening watching a Comedy Central Presents… marathon. The half-hour stand-up specials were often a spring-board for some of the most popular comics today. One of those comics was Nick Swardson. His half-hour special was definitely one of my all-time favorites, it’s actually frightening how accurate his commentary on the constant advances of Video Games actually was.

After the special, Swardson went MIA for a while and then started to reappear in Happy Madison films like Click, The Benchwarmers and Grandma’s Boy (while actually co-writing the latter two). Swardson will now be joining the ranks of Dave Chappelle, Demetri Martin and Carlos Mencia with yet another sketch comedy show on Comedy Central Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time. While attending New York Comic Con I was able to see the pilot which premieres on Comedy Central tonight at 10pm. But how is it? Is it worth watching?

Well, that’s hard to say; unlike The Chappelle Show which perfectly matched Chappelle’s stand-up with sketches. Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time is much more like Important things with Demetri Martin where you spend most of your time longing for the comedian to just do his stand-up.

One piece of the show I found interesting was the format, which unlike previous comedy central sketch shows, followed a very “Sketch” “Stand Up” “Sketch” style. Swardson attempts to do what Mr. Show perfected in having each sketch lead into the next one, however the transitions aren’t anything incredible and the tactic is mostly a zoom-out revealing the sketch you just watched being on a television owned by the star character of the new sketch.

But is it funny? The show is very completely hit or completely miss. Much like Important Things… when Pretend Time hits, it really hits. One particular sketch called Gary Gaga in which a reality show follows famous celebrity’s siblings (in this case Lady Gaga’s theatrically dressing Police Officer brother, Gary) definitely is the stand-out sketch which other ones (like a pee-fueled car) just seem very sophomore-ish, even though the show is just starting.

The show was interesting and unique enough that I’ll definitely watch a few more episodes before I can get a final verdict, but so far I don’t for-see this being the next Chappelle Show.

Just another day at the Office for Gary Gaga

Judge for yourself by watching it tonight, October 12, 2010, at 10pm only on Comedy Central.