On the scale of charismatic/interactive/crowd work comic to exceptionally skilled joke writer with lethal punch lines, Josh Adam Meyers is undeniably closer to the charismatic/interactive side. But he is charismatic with a capital C, his approach of weaving in singing with his jokes is entirely original, he is as high energy as comics come, and watching his comedy is just the epitome of fun.

Traveling to DC for my very first weekend away from two young kids, I couldn’t have been more excited for a night of standup in a great room I have never been to. So I brought two friends along to see Meyers at the late (drunk) show on a Saturday night.

To me, the absolute highest form of art is standup comedy in a small room, seated as close to the stage as possible. We achieved this at the DC Improv This was my first time there and it’s as great a comedy venue as you can possible find. If you are in DC for any reason, going to a show at the DC improv should be seen as mandatory. The room is small. There is no such thing as a bad seat. This is where comedy lives.

When Meyers takes the stage, he wastes no time making sure his audience knows that his show is going to be unconventional because it is going to be musical. He came on stage, immediately picked someone in the front row, and starting riffing with him and singing songs about him. He warns the audience that he connects with music and his whole show is like this.

This sets the tone to (1) expect loads of crowd work (2) get used to singing being part of the show. Throughout the rest of the show Meyers does just this. He picks someone in the front row to riff with and that person serves as an anchor point throughout the entire set. And he gets into it with them, asking them personal questions such as his favorite “What is your favorite song to have sex to?” During Goddamn Comedy jams and in rooms where he has a more musical infrastructure like his home base, the Comedy Cellar in New York, he will go so far as to bring the person on stage and have them sing in to the microphone.

For more traditional stand up shows like this one, he will engage in more traditional crowd work, and if he doesn’t burst into song, he will interact in an extremely high-energy way, making dolphin-like noises, using fake words such as his favorite: “scoodle,” and making crazy faces to demonstrate things such as what your heart is doing on cocaine. It’s impossible not to have fun unless you’re shy and sitting in the front row, which is a bad decision for which you only have yourself to blame.

Highs of the show for me were:

●When he blamed Metallica for his three DUIs during which we got to hear his best Hetfield (YEAHHHHHH NOOOOO).

●He talked about not having had alcohol in 15 years but said not to congratulate him because he was doing fentanyl during that time.

●He talked about his Washington Nationals tattoo being mistaken for a Walgreens logo and riffed on that.

●I know I started out by saying that Meyers’s strength isn’t ultra sharp joke writing but, at this show, I think I heard the most crisply written joke he has ever crafted. He doesn’t like the name “Washington Commodores” and to him, they will always be the…”Washington Football team.” It’s an absolutely fantastic joke with wonderful misdirection that hit all the harder because he told it in DC.

The only low for me was hearing him talk about how sex changes when you get older/Journey’s Separate Ways because that bit has already aired on Comedy Central. It’s an absolutely delightful bit that I adore but the very best comics retire a bit the moment it has been on TV.

I also want to note that this audience was incredibly difficult. There were people in the front row and elsewhere who wouldn’t stop talking. They had no clue how to behave at a comedy show. Meyers, more politely than I think was warranted, told them how horrible they had behaved at the end of the show and reminded them that standup comedy is hard. He had a great attitude in an incredibly difficult situation and handled it with grace.

Meyers’s comedy is fun, original, and addictive in a way that conventional standup cannot be. (I can’t think of another time in my life when I got a standup bit stuck in my head.)

I also recommend his inimitable the Goddamn Comedy Jam and the 500 podcast.

Meyers can sing to me anytime, preferably on a Saturday night in a small room like the DC improv.