Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle’ On Netflix, Detailing How The Machine Became The Baby Walrus

Bert Kreischer has convinced Mark Hamill to play his father in the upcoming movie based on the comedian’s most infamous story: “The Machine.” Now at 50, it appears Kreischer’s own daughters don’t view him as much of a machine, or even as Darth Vader, but rather as “Baby Walrus.” Not that that would ever stop him from trying to impress them, both because of and despite his own self-acknowledged limitations. After all, who doesn’t like self-deprecating jokes about one’s excessive physical weight and lack of intellectual weight?

BERT KREISCHER: RAZZLE DAZZLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In his fifth solo stand-up special, and third for Netflix, who describe this hour thusly: “Shameless — and shirtless — as ever, Bert Kreischer spills in a riotous set on bodily emissions, being bullied by his kids and the explosive end to his family’s escape room.”

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?:  Kreischer feels more like a movie character brought to life than a stand-up comedian, which might be life imitating art imitating life, as one National Lampoon film was based on his college exploits (Van Wilder), while his adult personality and demeanor seems more fitting of the late John Belushi’s John “Bluto” Blutarsky in the first Lampoon movie, Animal House.

Memorable Jokes: Bert gets down and dirty right out of the gate, because not long after he’s topless, he’s graphically describing an incident in which he was bottomless as well, asking his wife to shave his butt hair. If that’s not too much information already, Kreischer reveals even more, telling us how his wife reprimanded him for letting their daughters see his penis. Whoa. What gets even a bigger reaction from the crowd? When Kreischer rebuffs his wife’s argument by saying: “Objection, Amber Heard!” So, um, yeah. So that’s where he and his audience is on that. Anyhow. Moving on.

Kreischer is more than willing to keep making himself the literal butt of jokes, though.

Whether it’s his wife mocking him during sex, him mocking himself during sex by revealing “I’m thinking about Tom” (which you might be led to believe is comedian and longtime friend Tom Segura, although Kreischer name-drops Segura in full later in the hour), or his daughters mocking him for his weight (they’ve called him “Chonk” and “Fetus” before currently settling on “Baby Walrus”) — he’s even willing to make himself the ultimate target after suggesting that his kids aren’t that smart, because he also doesn’t have the answers to their questions.

But Bert, like a great comedy character in a movie, thrives and goes even bigger with his misadventures when he has his wife or daughters along for the ride to goad him on.

Which results in an entertaining account of encouraging one of his daughters to use the ol’ “Razzle Dazzle” during a school auction, followed by an even more wildly entertaining tale about raffle where Bert buys up 660 of the available 700 raffle tickets just to spite all of the other parents after hearing they didn’t want to spend money on behalf of an underprivileged school.

And then there’s his closing story, in which a birthday trip to an escape room goes completely off the rails, and not just because three generations of the Kreischer family might have stumbled into an actual serial killer’s home by mistake.

Our Take: Some comedians have catchphrases. Bert is all attitude, ever the party animal, still brimming with boisterous audacity. So when he removes his shirt, it’s gotta be dramatic, going slo-mo for the rip, focusing on how the shiny buttons fly off him and out toward the audience.

His affinity for going topless exemplifies that, and even if I couldn’t recall Tig Notaro’s 2015 HBO special, she’s the exceptional exception to the rule that the stand-up comedy industry remains chauvinistic (at best!) and downright hateful at worst (see: how quickly the audience piles on Amber Heard when Kreischer references her).

Nevertheless, when you actually focus on what Bert’s saying, you ultimately realize (or remember again) that he’s a relatively harmless bear of a man. Unless you’re unfortunate enough to be downwind of him when he’s feeling anxious, that is.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Nobody will ever put Kreischer on their list of greatest joke-writers or stand-ups, but neither will anyone ever accuse him of being a dull time. Unless Bert and his personality are to much to bear, so to speak, in which case, watch the “real” thing and see Cocaine Bear instead!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.