If you’re looking for a comedy special, but also want a really good story paired with music to get you through the quarantine, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.
“The Golden One” combines stand-up comedy, music and sad/heart-warming documentary. Whitmer Thomas is an actor and comedian based in Los Angeles, but hails from Gulf Shores, Alabama. The special was recorded in Alabama at a bar/concert venue on the beach where Thomas spent a lot of time watching his mother’s band and playing in bands as a teenager and young 20-something.
His story seems familiar and cripplingly sad: An absent father, a mother with substance abuse issues which ultimately take her life, living in the shadow of an older sibling but reaping some of the benefits of cool-kid-nepotism in high school.
The documentary-side of the special captures a few tough questions and responses from family members on camera. An intimate conversation inside a golf cart with his father, who left the family when Thomas was four. After his mother’s death, he hadn’t spoken to his aunt (his mother’s identical twin and bandmate), but the ice-breaking conversation is captured while Thomas is sitting in his car.
Thomas’ act can strike a nerve with aging millennials who lived through the Emo music era. His skills as a musician show that he does take some things seriously, though most of the music he’s put together is autobiographical, with a twist of humor, mainly at his own expense.
Bo Burnham is listed as Executive Producer and if you’ve seen his debut film, “Eighth Grade,” or any of his stand-up, you can see the influence. Burnham has a unique way of combining music and comedy that many others tried to emulate once he started gaining some fame on YouTube.
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He’s not the funniest comic on the planet, or the most skilled musician or singer, but he does enough things well to get his original ideas across.
The way Thomas put this special together is unique and you can bet a lot of aspiring comedians, musicians and storytellers are kicking themselves for not trying something like this first. One of Thomas’ dreams he shared during his special was to become a big star. It’s to be determined if this special will do that, but he’s now on the radar of comedy and music fans, who can’t wait to see what he’ll be doing next.
