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Following up on his half-hour Netflix debut presented by Dave Chappelle, stand-up comedian Earthquake returns with his first full stand-up special for the streaming giant.
EARTHQUAKE: JOKE TELLING BUSINESS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Now in his 60s, Earthquake has been a comedy “beast” for decades, according to Dave Chappelle, who first saw him perform back in 1993 the comedy club Earthquake co-owned in Atlanta.
Even if you don’t see him in the club, you can hear Earthquake regularly as he hosts “Quake’s House” on Kevin Hart’s LOL Radio SiriusXM satellite station.
And since his Netflix debut in 2022, the comedian born Nathaniel Stroman has continued to recur in episodes of the CBS sitcom, The Neighborhood, and he has appeared in brief roles in Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix cereal flick, Unfrosted, as well as the indie comedy film, The Gutter.
He returned to Atlanta to film this set, which finds the comedian reflecting on love, loss and how to survive not just the next few years, but anyone’s golden years. In the official trailer, he jokes about how much shoplifting has changed since he were a kid.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: His onstage confidence may draw favorable comparisons to the late great Bernie Mac, and when you notice how Earthquake loves to slap the microphone on his leg to punctuate his own enjoyment at a punchline, you can see how his mannerisms have influenced Chappelle.
Memorable Jokes: While he opens by reminding the crowd that Atlanta “is my comedy home,” he makes his actual home in Los Angeles, which means friends and fans alike wondered whether his place survived the fires from this January.
If only?!? “Divorce took my house!” he jokes, adding he wishes the fires had claimed his former property.“Give me the justice that the courts refused to do.”
You likely haven’t heard rationale for releasing R. Kelly from prison like you’ll hear from Earthquake. He not only cites Sean “Puffy” Combs in his peculiar defense, but also suggests that he’d never befall the same fate as those infamous hip-hoppers. “I’m confident because I paid for all my pussy,” he cracks.
He also defends LeBron James as a great father for getting his son, Bronny, on the Los Angeles Lakers to play alongside him, comparing it to how he treated his own son when he was attending and then graduating from college.
And he name-drops Jamie Foxx and his recent health scare as proof to bolster his case that every man needs a reliable woman by his side in case everything goes away, whether it be financially or physically.
Photo: NetflixOur Take: You’re not likely to see too many comedy specials that double as both life advice and financial planning, but perhaps that’s testament to Earthquake’s elder status now. He can still get down and dirty describing his sexual exploits. And yet he now finds himself wondering whether he should be saving up for an unknown amount of years ahead of him, or going balls-to-the-wall and enjoying whatever time he has left.
Though he doesn’t quite go after Trump and make this an explicitly political performance, race and politics is always connected to his observations.
He does advise Latinos in America to go into hiding for the next few years, joking: “I think I speak for all black people right now: Good luck.” But he’s not really joking, noting that he knows that cruel injustice is always just around the corner for black Americans.
Of the current president, Earthquake claims: “he ain’t playing.” His diagnosis of the 2024 election results isn’t so much an indictment of the Democrats, as it is befuddlement over what happened to the expected wave of support from women’s groups, from sororities to the Swifties and the Beyhive, who were supposed to sweep Vice President Kamala Harris into the Oval Office? He believes they were no match for the white man, saying there’s no such thing in America as an unqualified white man: “His pigmentation is his qualification.”
How deep does white privilege still run in these streets in 2025? In a bit much earlier in his set, Earthquake suggests he has seen it even while walking the streets of Portland, Ore., and remarking on how many unhoused white folks he saw there. Somehow he wasn’t worried about their welfare as he still was about his own.
“You could just tell they had mothers and fathers and dreams,” he jokes of them, adding: “All you need is a shower and a suit and you’ll be my supervisor by tomorrow.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. His catchphrase of a refrain has long been “these ain’t jokes.” Somehow that feels truer now more than ever.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
English (US)