Comedian Releasing Free YouTube Comedy Special After Show's Cancellation

One of the comedy's most beloved figures is putting out his first comedy special — and it's set for a free YouTube release. Joe Pera, the soft-spoken comic known for his TV show Joe Pera Talks With You, will release his comedy special Slow & Steady on Oct. 6. This special will show off the material Pera curated over the past year of touring, an adventure brought on after Adult Swim canceled his acclaimed sitcom.

"Hello I'm comedian Joe Pera, and I've got something exciting for you," Pera revealed in a YouTube video on Friday. "It's not the winning lotto numbers; it's better. When my Adult Swim show was canceled, I went back to my stand-up roots and hit the road. I did a tour that was supposed to be three weeks but then grew to a year and a half. I went all over: the Upper Midwest, the Lower Midwest, Buffalo (New York), Scotland and Phoenix (Arizona). I tried salmon jerky, I signed a Buick, people even got engaged. And in that time, a pretty good hour began to form of new jokes, old jokes, jokes addressing people calling me (Jeffrey) Dahmer."

He continued, "I've been doing stand-up for a decade and a half, even did some late night (talk show) sets, but never a special. So when the jokes felt ready, I decided to just do it on my own. With the help of some collaborators from the show and two cool producer ladies who specialize in stand-up specials (Michelle Caputo and Shannon Hartman), we could make it exactly how we wanted. And who needs savings anyhow?"

Pera then directly thanked the fans who've seen him live over the past year-and-a-half, saying the funds from his live work went into funding Slow & Steady. "By the way, if you came to a show or bought merch, you are also a producer," he said. "I think it came out real nice. If you want to watch, you'll hopefully laugh at it and say, 'That was a dang good way to spend 56 minutes and 41 seconds.'"

Joe Pera Talks With You was a quirky, quiet and wholesome comedy series that ran for three seasons (32 episodes) on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's adult-focused programming block. It earned critical acclaim and drew in a cult fan base, but it was one of the many Warner Bros. Discovery projects canceled amid corporate shakeups. Pera broke the tough news to fans in a July 2022 announcement.

Pera summed up the experience of making the show by saying, "The more I learn how TV works, the more I realize that it's kind of a miracle that our quiet, 11-minute show about rocks, beans, grocery stores, and breakfast crews got on the air and lasted as long as it did."