For Wyatt Cenac, the best stand-up material comes from stepping out of his front door, heading down the familiar way, and observing the hypergentrifying world around him. On last year’s Netflix-released comedy special Wyatt Cenac: Brooklyn the former Daily Show With Jon Stewart correspondent settles into a pair of shows at Park Slope’s Union Hall to pretty much take the audience sitting in front of him to task. But Cenac is as cool as they come when he’s riffing, for example, about how out of whack the very existence of an artisanal mayonnaise retailer makes Brooklyn appear. It’s his coy yet devilish smile that subtly says, Yeah, I’m pretty much sticking it to you guys.
Though Cenac lives in Fort Greene and has the cultivated vibe of someone who’s in the know about everything, he also revels in railing against hipness. He’s long ranted about his devoted love of television and his exhaustion with those who pooh-pooh it, and while he’ll begrudgingly respect one’s decision not to eat meat, he can’t help but quip that “Vegetarians are always about three drinks away from a cheeseburger.”
Cenac is such a smooth operator that even while harrumphing he’s putting the audience at ease. Which in turn helps his critiques of gentrification land just right. “Even the white people must think, Shit this is a lot of fucking white people,” he says in the Netflix special. He’s talking about Brooklyn, but the joke would play well at Lincoln Hall too.
Sat 11/14, 10 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, lh-st.com, $20.