Ty Watches "Whitmer Thomas: The Golden One"

While scrolling through the comedy portion of Twitter and Facebook recently, I kept seeing people talking about Whitmer Thomas’, a comedian and actor, new HBO special, “The Golden One”. Full disclosure, I did not know who Whitmer Thomas was at the time. I looked into his IMDB to see if I knew him from anything, and while he’s been on some shows I’ve watched, I still came up empty. But, the way people were taking about this special, I kept going back, reading stuff and I decided I really wanted to see it. I guess to see if the hoopla was legit. It happened to be airing on HBO this past weekend, so I recorded it and watched it yesterday.

This special is amazing. It is unlike anything comedy special that I have ever watched. It straddles the line as a comedy special and a documentary. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will get into bits and pieces.

The special opens with Whitmer looking at old photos with the director, and then he reads a note his mom wrote him when he moved to LA. He goes on to say something along the lines of, “she wrote that, and then I wrote a bunch of jokes about jacking off”. That was when I knew I was in for something good. The special then follows him back home to, I think either Gulf Shores or Floribama, if that’s a place. He filmed this special in his hometown. This is where the documentary portion comes into play. The special goes back and forth from his stand up to him talking to family and friends. He reconnects with people. He gets into deep conversations with people. All of this is spliced with him telling jokes on the topic, and singing songs. And his songs rule. I’m not a huge emo guy, but Whitmer Thomas’ renditions were so good. I also appreciated that he had a screen behind him with the words, almost like karaoke. Thomas can also play and sing, making the music that much better. The songs also help to explain his jokes even further, which I also really enjoyed.

What really makes “The Golden One” stand out is the honesty. Whitmer Thomas is brutally honest in this, and I absolutely love that. “The Golden One” is the most honest, heart breaking, moving, funny, insightful, interesting and coolest stand up special I’ve seen in quite sometime. I’m bummed at myself for not knowing about him, or this special sooner.

Seriously people, go seek this out. It’s so unique and puts the stand up special on its head, in a good way. My hat is off to Whitmer Thomas. He’s a genius, and this special proves that tenfold. Go check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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