Actor-comedian-extraordinaire Dax Flame came to UC Berkeley\u2019s Krutch Theater for SUPERB Production\u2019s \u201cDebate Dax Flame\u201d event Monday. Dax is known for his viral social media presence \u2014 and a little less known for his appearances in \u201cProject X\u201d and \u201c21 Jump Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dax began with a standup set to a full house of UC Berkeley students, and it\u2019s safe to say that it was one of the most \u2014 if not the most \u2014 unique sets I have ever seen. Dax is known for his monotone, stuttering presentation. He began with a classic line that I recognized from my Instagram Explore page: \u201cI love going to the aquarium. My favorite thing is looking at all the jellyfish, but I always just wish there were some peanut butter fish as well.\u201d Dax fired at a rapid pace, refusing to wait for the laughs to peter out.<\/p>\n
In the spirit of International Women\u2019s Day just a day prior, Dax took the opportunity to empower the many women in the crowd: \u201cI think a better title for the movie \u2018Wonder Woman\u2019 would have been \u2018Normal Woman,\u2019 because every woman is a superhero.\u201d Later, he said, \u201cI hate this woke bulls—. If another Gen Z person tells me to say \u2018unhoused\u2019 instead of \u2018homeless,\u2019 I\u2019m going to unalive them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then moved on to some masterfully terrible crowdwork, which he attempted several times during his set. Once, he requested heckling in hopes of countering it with a humorous comeback. Unfortunately, he was unable to respond to comments from the crowd, asking, \u201cAnyone wanna heckle me differently?\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of the set, Dax attempted a variety of comedic approaches and topics: self-deprecation (\u201cNobody respects me because I\u2019m a loser. I hate myself\u201d), relatable riffs on slow internet (\u201cit\u2019s slower than the line at the DMV!\u201d), timid retellings of other comedians\u2019 jokes (\u201cThank you to Demetri Martin, Shane Gillis and \u2014 I forgot the other person\u201d) and even some UC Berkeley-specific humor (\u201cY\u2019all hate Stanford? Cool.\u201d), which were all met enthusiastically. At times, he completely abandoned jokes and asked the audience plainly to \u201cplease laugh.\u201d It was truly something to behold.<\/p>\n
For the uninitiated, it might be hard to imagine these jokes prompting so much laughter, but Dax Flame\u2019s strong suit is more delivery than wit. Whereas other comedians train themselves not to stutter or fumble a joke, Dax thrives on the awkwardness that his jarring style produces \u2014 the awkwardness is his style. His mistakes are all made seemingly intentionally \u2014 the question of his sincerity is a frequent topic of controversy in his comment sections \u2014 and create a singular hilarity.<\/p>\n
After his set, he transitioned abruptly to presenting something unexpected: a song. He introduced it as \u201cMy Sparks,\u201d a ballad dedicated to his fans. With his music video projected behind him, Dax stood and awkwardly bobbed to the beat, holding the microphone so close to his mouth that it was impossible to tell if he was lip-syncing or not. Not quite dancing, not quite singing, but certainly physically present on the stage, Dax bewildered the audience with all the stage presence of a Chuck E. Cheese animatronic. The song, like his jokes, was received with fervid applause.<\/p>\n
Finally, the actual debate ensued. In a set-up reminiscent of Jubilee\u2019s \u201cSurrounded\u201d series, Dax sat across from an empty seat to be filled by one of 12 student debaters. Each student was introduced with a fun fact, ranging in intensity from \u201cMy favorite movie is The Lego Movie\u201d to \u201cI\u2019m going to crush you, Dax Lame.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prompts were lighthearted and encompassed a broad array of topics. One round was dedicated to the existence of Santa Claus. Arguing with perhaps the most resistant attitude of the night, Dax Flame politely disagreed even when pitted against milk and cookies-related evidence. After the debater persuaded the crowd to clap for their belief in Santa, Dax ended up agreeing.<\/p>\n
Each round ended similarly: Dax either admitted a lukewarm stance on the prompt or agreed with his opponent to avoid confrontation. In the context of today\u2019s screamy political hellscape, it was both hilarious and sort of therapeutic to watch such a low-stakes and low-energy series of arguments.<\/p>\n
Other debates dealt with the emotional capacity of AI, the legitimacy of ghosting and eye contact as an assertion of dominance. Despite almost uniformly ending in agreement, each round was entertaining and spirited enough to keep the audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
After the debates concluded, the show\u2019s presenters transitioned to a Q&A portion where a long, long line of students asked Dax things like \u201cIs there a Mrs. Flame?\u201d to which Dax responded that there was not, and that he had deleted Hinge. \u201cWould you date a fan?\u201d He said no \u2014 sorry to hopeful readers \u2014 unless, of course, they were Doja Cat. One student used their time to simply comment on Dax\u2019s \u201cnatural \u2018aegyo,\u2019\u201d while another asked why they hadn\u2019t been invited to \u201cProject X.\u201d Dax keenly responded that their age would have made things weird, but that now everyone in the room was invited to the next one. The crowd cheered, and Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s \u201cBig Time Sensuality\u201d played as the show concluded and the audience was instructed to line up for photos.<\/p>\n
Dax Flame may not be the most traditional comedian, but his distinctive style and friendliness towards the audience left me and many others with cheeks sore from laughter and camera rolls blessed by selfies, which is all you can really ask for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor-comedian-extraordinaire Dax Flame came to UC Berkeley\u2019s Krutch Theater for SUPERB Production\u2019s \u201cDebate Dax Flame\u201d event Monday. Dax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[102722,764,2241,102719,26532,143,145,144,102721,40251,102720],"class_list":["post-225450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-21-jump-street","tag-berkeley","tag-comedy","tag-dax-flame","tag-debate","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-project-x","tag-stand-up","tag-superb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}