Comedy Means Business' inaugural Special of the Month is Long Story Thin from Shaun Murphy — a very well-written and performed 40 minutes from a comic I'd never seen before, who definitely shouldn't be unrepped, yet somehow is. Filmed in NYC last August in the Comedy Cellar's sister showroom, The Fat Black Pussycat, the self-distributed Long Story Thin sees Murphy take on topics like losing his hair, reparations, body shaming, how white women are over-hated, and more. It was released three weeks ago, as a collab with Mark Normand, and deserves much more than the 39K it's accrued on YouTube in the last three weeks, if you want to take a look. Long Story Thin is Murphy's second special on the heels of 2022's Neal, which was also self-released. Mike Lavin directed and produced via his 3 Nuts Studios produced alongside Liz Furiati. Of Furiati, Murphy said, "I'm very thankful to her for letting me use the room, putting me in contact with Mike, and for just supporting me in general. "Ditto," he said, "to Mark Normand. I randomly featured for him in Portland Oregon at Helium in 2017 and since then I've opened for him all over the world - including three different times in Europe. In addition to all of that, he was nice enough to put my special on his youtube page which is a huge help!" Murphy began performing stand-up at a place called Comix Cafe while attending college in Buffalo, NY in 2004. He stayed in Buffalo for another 10 years after that, and given that "in those days comics were rarely allowed to bring openers," he says, he got to work with the likes of Andrew Schulz, Jen Kirkman, Gilbert Gottfried, Tony Hinchcliffe, Dave Attell, Tom Green, and Kevin Pollak, among others. Murphy moved to New York City in January 2014, got passed at the Comedy Cellar in November 2021, and continues to open for the likes of Dan Soder and Beth Stelling. Check out his new special here. |