Gary Gulman does a meandering six-minute set on how the post office came up with the two-letter abbreviations for each state. The trivia and asides get increasingly absurd as the bit continues.
Patton Oswalt recent expressed awe at doing an entire spot on TV based on just one idea, suggesting it’s akin to tightrope-walking without a net.
Do you know how terrifying that is to risk? As a comedian? If you start down this road and it’s NOT clicking? There’s no ripcord. No bolt-hole to safety. You’ve chosen this track and you better hope it brings you to the next station instead of suddenly ending in warped rails over a crevasse. I’ve only seen a few people pull something like this off. Jake Johannsen did a spot on Letterman back in the 90s where all he talked about was the Midwest kid who got his arms torn off by a thresher and called 9-11 with his nose and teeth. That was the whole routine. And it destroyed.
• Gary Gulman Stand-Up (via MeFi)