I really hope you think it's ridiculous that I chose to profile Don Gavin as a start-up stand-up. Because he's a veteran. And he's well-known. And he probably looks familiar even to a lot of people who don't follow stand-up. But he's far less familiar than he should be.
Remember the feeling you had as a little kid when your favorite quarterback would get in the game and you just knew that he was going to take over and win it? Remember how you knew that he didn't make mistakes? And even if something went wrong he was going to fix it. He'd do a magic trick if he had to. He was going to get that first down.
That's Gavin on stage. Watching the control he has over his set: the timing, the arc, the writing, the personality… every stand-up could learn from him. And it's frustrating that he's not a household name in comedy. But comedians know him. He's a cornerstone of the Boston circuit. He's The Gahdfathah.
His jokes are a lot like one liners, but he has the most fluid and storyform delivery of one-liners that I've ever heard. He goes from one joke right to the next giving each one just the daylight it needs so that it hits.
I don't want to pick any other comic. But you know that one that everyone says is funny? The one that's so popular and considered a comic genius by People Magazine? He's no Don Gavin.
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