Paul Virzi’s New Netflix Special Shows He’s Ready to Go Mainstream
Go Ahead, Judge Paul Virzi By His Friends
Some of the biggest stars in comedy and in the comedy business love and support Paul Virzi. Nocturnal Admissions was directed by Pete Davidson, supported wholeheartedly by close friend Bill Burr, and Virzi now has the best publicist in the business, Michael O’Brien, on his team, as well as super manager Rory Rosegarten who represents giants like Ray Romano, Brian Regan, and Tom Green. Paul’s mother always told me him, “show me who your friends are like, and I’ll tell you like where you are.” And it turns out she’s right.
Paul Virzi’s new Netflix special shows a comedian who has learned to command the stage and hold the audience in the palm of his hand. It’s been four years since he released his first special- which was great- but in the four years since, he’s really fine tuned his stage presence, and his material, and he’s on the verge of breaking through to join his celebrity comedy friends on a bigger stage.
I’ve had the chance to watch Paul develop in NYC clubs for the past 15 years, and it’s thrilling to see him take over a room, fill it with laughter, and destroy, and he knows it. It’s not bravado, it’s not arrogance, it’s the quiet confidence of an artist who has worked hard to hone his craft, and can enjoy knowing he’s hit the sweet spot. “This is my voice. This is who I am. And I think if you watch Nocturnal Admissions, you kind of will understand my humor, somewhat of my family, but also me as a person,” he told me during a phone interview about the special. “I think it all kind of came together with this one as far as…this is who you would be smoking a cigar with, this is who you’d be hanging with.”
The jokes are all there. There’s no cheap pops, no lengthy time filling set ups. Paul sets out to make you laugh from the moment he hits the stage till he says goodnight. He’s examined his life, his family, his community and himself for material that is so relatable you feel you like know them. He comes to the stage armed with personal, silly and sometimes dark stories from a family man with a Sicilian father who is sure he saw a UFO, a loving wife who might be undercutting his attempts to get in shape, hilarious kids, and a love for Cholos. The jokes and stories are authentic, sometimes sweet, sometimes blunt in just the right ways, and always funny.
Paul is a really nice guy, and that comes through on stage, but he’s not a clean comic. He’s also not a shock comic. He rides the line between those two camps better than anyone I’ve seen- appealing to a broad audience while still talking like a regular guy. So yes, you can watch the special with your mom, your older kids, maybe even your grandparents, but they might blush a few times. It’s a tough spot to navigate but Virzi pulls it off. Maybe it’s because he’s such a big teddy bear of a guy that he can freely explore some more adult topics without offending. Paul told me that he thinks he can get away with the edgier material because he knows these are things that people are thinking, but don’t want to say out loud for fear they’ll be judged. “So what I do is, I’m gonna give you a joke about my kids. That’s innocent, but then I’ll give you a joke that’s maybe not so innocent or a little, you know, even like a little risky for people that just like clean comedy.” Paul remembered something someone said about his comedy: “he’s not that clean but I think you’re going to like it, I did.” That made him realize that people who typically only go see clean comedians, can probably deal with a little bit more risky material. “Cuz they’re an adult, hopefully. I wanna talk about everything and not everything is nice.” It’s that balance that helps Paul maintain an audience that spans people in their early twenties through their sixties.
And his special revealed something new I haven’t seen in Virzi before- a real talent for impressions. Not necessarily celebrity impressions, more picking up on types. His impression of his dad is a highlight of the hour, as is his material describing the colorful personality of a Los Angeles Cholo. Paul told me his family encouraged him to bring these voices to the stage. “My older brother and my wife would say to me, for years, they would go, man, you should really do more impressions. Like you can do impressions. Even when you just joke really quick, you can do ’em.” For years he would push that encouragement aside, saying he wanted to focus on telling stories and bits. “But then when I do incorporate them, and I think I started to notice it when I would even just joke about, Trump, even not trying, people were like, oh, that’s not like bad. Even though you’re like half doing it. And now I’m kind of doing a Joe Biden really quickly and you know, I can do the Russian voice and the Cholo stuff.”
It might be a risky time to play around with accents on stage, but Paul’s sincerity and even admiration for those he targets comes through, and it would be difficult to imagine anyone taking offense. And he’s already had the opportunity to test that. “A week after we released on Netflix, I was in San Diego and there were Cholos in the audience that were fans, which was hilarious, with flannels buttoned to the top and I was like, listen, I see a couple of Cholos here. So I know you saw the special, and I hope you’re not here to kill me. But they were just there as fans. And it was so cool. I’m not making fun of a Cholo in a way where it’s like bad and negative. If anything, I’m saying that I like the way that they’re relaxed and the way that they talk is so funny and entertaining to me. So, it’s an appreciation.”
Virzi has always been most captivating when talking about his family. He’s great at capturing the joy of being a dad with an almost magical ability to recognize the little moments that are special, and he can share those stories in a way that is not only funny, but life affirming. Which is perfect, because being a family man has always been important to Paul. While so many of his New York City comedy friends were living the single life, starting families late or raising kids in the city, Virzi always wanted the old fashioned family life, and he has immersed himself in that life to the fullest. With a successful professional wife, two kids, a dog, and a house in Westchester, he has everything. “I always wanted a family,” he said. “And even when I was in my early twenties, starting out with comedy…not having a family was not even on the table. I always said, I want to have kids. So I’m not trying to be disrespectful to anybody doing this, but the idea of being a comic in a studio or a one bedroom apartment, just running around and my existence being spots in New York City to pay my rent, that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a family and a life and develop comedy hours, you know, like George Carlin did, or like these people did where, you know, you have a life, but then you work an hour, you travel for a couple years to get the hour, right. And then you put the hour out and hopefully you can keep up that, making every project better than the next, or at least as good as the last, but, but hopefully better. That’s what I wanted.” And he says, he’s even inspired some of his comedy friends to start families of their own.
But despite the picture perfect family, Virzi admits to having his share of personal struggles and demons. In an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience earlier this month, he opened up about dealing with anxiety, OCD and depression. But even his negative experiences, it turns out, are inspiring others. “I’m getting all these messages of people– I mean, I’m getting grown men. I’m not even kidding– saying Paul, I cried my eyes out, listening to your Rogan [episode]. Thank you for at least talking about your struggles that you have with anxiety and OCD and depression. So as much as I have this life, which is great, the battles that I deal with, I try to turn into a positive and take that to the stage. And I think that that is also why I fully found my voice now, because I’m kind of really truly understanding everything that I am and what I’m going through.”
Yes, others have talked about their anxieties and depression, but coming from Paul, who doesn’t look like the sensitive type, it really resonates with a wide audience. “People have this idea of me because of how I look– I got a shaved head. I got a beard, you know, I’m this Italian Greek guy who probably comes across as like this tough New Yorker.” And he’ll get messages from big burly guys, again the types not used to expressing weakness, and they’ll say that hearing a guy like Paul talk about these things makes them feel like they’re not alone. “So I think the fact that I’m doing that is, people say ‘oh, this guy can be goofy and joke around, but he feels with his shit too. And it kind of made me feel normal.’ That’s that’s all I could ask.”
Paul Virzi is the genuine article and that’s why his support team is filled with comedy giants. Nocturnal Admissions was directed by Pete Davidson, a long time friend and arguably the most famous comedian in the world. They met when Pete was only 16 and just getting started in the bigger clubs, and he never forgot their first meeting. “When I was 16 years old, I went to Caroline’s Comedy Club and Paul Virzi was hosting that night,” Pete recalled. “Paul was in the full Sopranos-like Adidas track suit and I was immediately onboard. I remember him crushing so hard and we later became friends. I have been friends with Paul for over a decade and besides being one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet, he is also one of the realist and has always had my back and he knows I will always have his. Directing the special was a no-brainer and an honor, on one hand I get to direct my first special and on the other hand it’s one of my best friends.”
Virzi feels the same way about Pete, and shared a personal story because he wanted to make sure people understand who Pete is as a person. “He’s one of the most misunderstood people that that’s in show business and, and listen, you know, he dates these stars, he’s on SNL. And he used to literally not go to the SNL after party. And they would be like, well, what’s up with this guy? And he would just be this nice guy. And then all of a sudden he’d start dating somebody on Page Six. And his issues were in the public,” Virzi told me. “But you know, I remember one night I was off on a Saturday night, which is rare for us and I’m home and I’m not on the road and I’m not in the city. I’m just home. And my family’s sleeping and I’m outside smoking a cigar. It’s Saturday night, so I’m just going through my phone and I haven’t talked to Pete in a week. Let me, let me talk to Pete. So I called Pete and Pete answers the phone. He says, hello. And I said, what’s going on man? And he goes, oh, nothing. He goes, um, I’m just at work. And I look at the phone and I realize it’s 11:45pm on Saturday. And he’s literally at Saturday night live. Right? And he answers and he answers in that work voice. And I’m going dude, what the fuck are you doing? Why’d you answer? I didn’t realize you were at work. I’m sorry. And he just goes, no, no. I just wanna make sure everything’s okay. That’s who that guy is like. That’s amazing. That guy answered his fucking phone during Saturday Night Live taping because his friend called and he’s like, I just wanna make sure everything is good. And I’m like, oh my God, I didn’t even realize I’m so sorry. Call me back. And he’s like, yeah, yeah, I’ll call you after.”
When Paul was working on first special, Pete wanted to direct it. But Paul was already working with All Things Comedy, so Davidson came on as a producer. And when Virzi started working on Nocturnal Admissions he immediately invited Pete to direct. “And so I remember sending him some of the material and he’s like, oh my God, I got 13 minutes left, but I just had to call you. This is great. And then when he saw the closer with my son and the basketball story, he called again, and he was like, man, I really, really love that story. He got really excited about it. So that, that quote that he gave was really like truly like from the heart and stuff. And, and that’s really who Pete is.”
Now that Paul’s got two great specials behind him and a fast growing audience, you have to ask, what’s next? He’s relatable, he’s so damn likeable, he’s got a killer work ethic and he’s incredibly professional. And he’s represented by Rory Rosegarten who produced Everyone Loves Raymond, so I couldn’t help but think that Paul could be the perfect guy to revive the comedian-centric sitcom. When I asked if that’s something he’s thought about, he said, it is a possibility. “I don’t know exactly how it would go,” he told me, “but there are right now some ideas and talks for a show that we are kind of messing around with.” In the meantime, he’s getting some experience acting. He’ll be in at least two movies this year- one of which is a major motion picture. And he just announced his London headlining debut on October 7th at 21Soho. And it’s only going up from here. For tickets and all dates go to PaulVirzi.com, and make sure you check out his special on Netflix now, no matter what style of comedy you’re into. Paul has created a comedy classic, that everyone can enjoy.
