Pete Davidson: Sober and Funnier than Ever

ALBANY–Comedian Pete Davidson performed at Albany’s Egg in two shows on Thursday night. The Saturday Night Live alum, who is also notorious for failed relationships, self-proclaimed drug addiction, and mental health issues, sold out two full shows in his performance in the Capital Region.

As a trained professional mental health provider in my day job, I wasn’t sure which part of my brain I’d be accessing more during this show: therapist or reviewer. After all, Davidson has been frank about his grief related to his fireman father’s 9/11 death, the use of illegal substances, and mental health medications. I wasn’t sure if I would be writing a review of a show or a case note with a mental status exam.

Davidson entered the stage to wild applause after two warm-up comics, and he immediately demonstrated that he was not only sober but oriented to place, time and situation. “Albany is a block-by-block city,” he accurately teased. “On one block, you want to raise a family, but then you turn the corner and want to get your family out of there.”

Davidson’s humor on stage was darker than anything he could pull off on SNL. He owned that his use of drugs as problematic but also reflected on the fact that “in my job, they don’t care what you do as long as you show up.”

That might’ve been true of the crowd at The Egg Thursday night as well, many of whom were probably wondering which Davidson would show up.

The Davidson who showed up was healthier than I’ve ever seen him. He was clear thinking, witty, and engaged in good eye contact.

Davidson wasn’t just sober. He was funnier sober.

His riffs about choosing a hobby while in recovery, with a forced choice between Halo and heroin (“you are going to fail at both, but you might as well choose the one where you have a good time”), were not only funny; they were hilarious. He was able to generate laughs about sick children with cancer, men having sex with his mom, and even stalkers in a way that were honest but also delightfully fun.

He did disclose an intense relationship with his mother that brought out my analyst side, but his own laughter at his jokes (and the depravity of suggesting he would have sex with her just to help her) brought back my reviewer brain, quickly reminding me that this was supposed to be fun.

And fun it was. Davidson used language, physical humor, and authentic storytelling to bring the audience with him for laughter and a few hours of not thinking about how dark the world really is. Even his jokes about the Holocaust film “Schindler’s List,” which would normally be gasp-worthy, seemed to bring a lightness by laughing at the dark.

Humble, Davidson described himself as a “D-rated” celebrity. After this show, I’d upgrade him to at least a B. He was sober, mood was congruent with affect, and thought content was wildly inappropriate. I can’t wait to see what this almost 30-year-old will be like as he performs into middle age.