Yes, not making that up, I was among the 10 - 11 thousand people in the American Airlines arena on June 21st, 2019.
Though technically comedians film over the course of two days so they can cross-edit footage if something goes wrong, they chose the night I was there for the alpha roll. I know this because a few unscripted moments within the final cut happened on our night. There's so much we don't see when big comedians prepare and produce these specials. The actual event was over 2 hours, so about half the show was cut out. It felt like being on a movie set, as time after time they would stop, start, adjust Jeff's clothing, and even redo entire jokes. In fact, a lot of the laughs at the beginning of Bubba J's segment was edited for the final cut, as Jeff had to completely restart that bit, and people had trouble laughing with the same level of enthusiasm as the first time (and yes there were other instances where the laughing was "fixed"). Jeff seemed rather nervous that night. Whether it was because he was in his hometown of Dallas, or the fact that the event was for a Netflix special, or both, I don't know. Half the stopping and starting was due to him losing his train of thought or bad line deliveries (as himself, he had no trouble at all when talking through the puppets). But this issue actually illustrated his authenticity in trying to deliver the best show he could give his audience, even when the puppets weren't talking.
Now onto the special itself. There was a certain electicity in the arena, and it definitely carried over into the final cut. If there was any splicing between nights, I couldn't perceive it, so the editing team did a fatastic job. The classic puppets (Walter, Bubba J, Peanut, Jose, and Achmed) were hilarious, though I'd argue they're even funnier in real life. I won't spoil them, but as stated earlier, there were unscripted goofs that Jeff made, but he played them off so well that they made the show even more of a scream. The main critique I have for the special (hense the 8/10 rating) is the introduction of the new puppet Larry the White House Twitter Advisor. Though I and everyone else in the arena were genuinely laughing at certain jokes, they definitely lifted the volume in post for others. Without getting into politics, Larry is basically Peanut if he were human and had insomnia. He talked similarly to Peanut, his moves were almost identical to Peanut's, and his joke delivery was also reminiscent. Now obviuosly all the puppets have their "connective tissue" to each other because they're all voiced by Jeff, but Larry was WAY too similar. Half the time I was watching him I kept picturing Peanut in a suit. If he had introduced a different character, or brought back one of his legacy characters like Melvin the Superhero, I think the show could easily have been a 9.
Overall, the live show was an amazing experience, and the Netflix special is both funny and well put together. I hope to see another comedian live again, as this put into perspective just how hard comedians work to make something awesome and funny :)
