“Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking” Review

“Late Night” host Seth Meyers stars in a new comedy special on Max titled “Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking,” with severe emphasis on the dad part of that title.

In this stand-up special, Meyers focuses on his life at home, focusing on jokes regarding being a father.

He makes jokes about his three children and his wife but never do these jokes go too far to the point of being mean-spirited. Meyers strikes a good balance between creating funny jokes but also jokes that still show how he truly cares for his family.

Many of the jokes are him echoing things that his children have said to him. For example, his first joke during the special was telling the audience what his son tells him when he has to go number two, with his child saying “I have a secret that is brown.”

A refreshing part of this special was to see a lack of political jokes considering how commonly used they are by comedians, especially this year with the upcoming election.

There was however a part within the special that did seem out of place with the rest. There was a part where he started to talk about COVID-19 vaccinations without any real transition.

It did not fit with the contents of everything else and just seemed like something Meyers wanted to get off his chest.

Seth Meyer’s facial expressions and physicality are a true highlight of the special. They help in selling each of the jokes and the stories.

As a former anchor for “Weekend Update” and current host of “Late Night,” Meyers certainly has experience in entertaining a crowd, and that is on full display within this special.

While not every one of his jokes was a hit, it was refreshing to see a comedy special with such a simple concept.

Seth Meyers, like other talk show hosts such as Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, has become synonymous with making political jokes on their show. Therefore it was nice to see him break away from those jokes and make a comedy special centered around being a dad.

A sign of a great comedian is having the ability to take anything and make it funny. Throughout this special, the Chicago crowd is constantly laughing and cheering at everything Meyers is doing.

Meyers can take a simple concept concept like waiting at a traffic light with his kids and tell it in a way that leaves the audience cackling.

Sure, political jokes can be funny. A Trump impression may make the crowd go crazy. However, these jokes have become way too prominent in this day and age and are not testing comedians in any way.

It is a concept like this that shows Meyer’s true skills as a comedian. Turning someone's every day into a comedic standup routine is a skill that few have but Meyers performs it greatly within this special.

The special is now streaming on Max.

Rating: 4/5

Nikolai Wagner is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To email him, contact njw5648@psu.edu.