The 2018 List Of 5 Comedians I Know Personally Is Here With A Beautifully Diverse Collection Of Voices

I can’t believe it’s been two years since the first List Of 5. A lot has changed since then: we got a new president, all my ex-girlfriends are on UCB house teams, and American culture is shifting.

Shortly after releasing the first List Of 5 it was pointed out that they were predominantly straight white men.

After taking a year off and doing some soul searching I came to the same conclusion as Hollywood, Five Guys, and everyone on Facebook: as much as I get a kick out of the straight white male perspective (what can I say, I’m a sucker for those rascals, you just want to pinch their cheeks and muss up their hair!) in order to remain commercially viable it was time for some different voices.

A note to the diverse comedians I know personally: You did not make this list BECAUSE you are diverse, you made this list because I like you and think you’re funny. It’s just that if you voted for Hillary you’re allowed to brazenly talk like this with complete abandon and no sense of self-awareness.

And now, The 2018 List Of 5 Comedians I Know Personally!

Drew Freed

One of my earliest comedy friends. Drew Freed has an effortlessness to his humor. He just is funny. He’s been doing UCB sketch stuff for a while, which he’s great in, but he gets type cast as the classic Midwestern idiot.

Drew’s imagination is so far beyond that. His characters are bizarre, sometimes disgusting, and always hysterically funny. He does an amazingly accurate mom and a satanic, six your old, sexually deviant child called “The Little Kid Who Likes To Fuck”.

His characters are bizarre

He can also improvise guitar melodies and lyrics and have a fully fleshed out comedic song in a matter of minutes. I look forward to seeing him explore his ideas in some upcoming video projects.

Whitley Watson

There’s a reason I ask Whitley to do my show just about every month. Whitley is able to come up with complex, high concept, hysterical bits based off the flimsiest of themes with little to no warning. Every time she performs it’s clear she’s thought about it more than you have and wrote something twice as good.

Complex, high concept, hysterical

Whitley is also an extremely talented artist and video creator who has made some of the best stuff that’s been shown at Red Hot Video Fun Time. Her work can be seen on her Instagram and in the major motion picture John Wick 2.

Paul Higbie

In a sea of stand ups described as “alt”, the only label Paul Higbie needs is “really fucking funny”.

I first met Paul at a comedy night I put together where he did a bit about being attracted to cougars, or, as he thought they should respectfully be called, “gorgeous older women”. It’s still the best stand up bit I’ve seen anyone do in New York, it would destroy on any of the late night talk shows.

Really fucking funny

As I got to know Paul, I asked him to do my bit show and once again he blew me away with polished, hilarious work he came up with just for my dumb show. If you know Paul send him a message saying you love him and you want to see him perform. Be on the lookout for his up-coming documentary on Gary Marinoff and Allen Shane (it’s fantastic).

Devon Courtney Knight

Devon’s humor sneaks up on you then punches you in the face. My girlfriend Marshall did a theme show where it was her purity ball and she pledged her virginity to God (with List Of 5er Sefa keeping watch as her loving father) and then had people do bits as characters at the ball.

Devon’s humor sneaks up on you

Devon came up as child bride, clearly in some Christian cult, holding her dead father’s urn and proceeded to go on about how she wished she had a father like Marshall’s. It was hilarious and my favorite bit of 2018 so far.

Neal Gartland

I haven’t seen Neal in forever. We used to be on an improv team together and he was absolutely fantastic. I wonder what he’s been up to? I should send him a text.

I should send him a text

His Instagram is a combination of videos of beautiful meals he cooks with his husband and pictures of himself he purposefully makes as disgusting as possible. He’s such a freak, I miss him!

The Precedent Breaking 6th Comedian I Know Personally

What can I say? I know a lot of comedians personally and I couldn’t not include just one more in the all new “Bad-At-Math 6th 5er Slot”.

Stefan Schuette

If I found myself pissed off I was at an improv show, Stefan is one of the few people who would remind me why I used to go to them in the first place.

This guy is so quick with bizarre logic that both makes scenes work and is actually funny. I’ve worked on multiple videos with Stefan and every time the room has to reset after Stefan sends everyone into laughing fits because of some insane tangent he improvised that made the script better.

Stefan sends everyone into laughing fits

Cast him in anything and watch your project get better instantly. His talents deserve more than the immaterial nature of an improv show.

There you have it folks. I’m really proud of this list and really proud of these 5 comedians I know personally!