The hilarious yet disturbing comedy of Anthony Jeselnik

When you watch comedian Anthony Jeselnik's Neflix one-hour special, Fire in the Maternity Ward, it will be obvious that AJ is a star on the rise: perfect timing, great delivery, a good-looking guy, poised on stage, and most of all some incredibly smart material and will again and again defy expectations w/ impossible to anticipate punch lines (by the half-way point, part of the fun is trying to see where AJ is going w/ his material and to try to anticipate the punch lines - you usually can't). I'm not going to give any of his gags away, but will simply say that some of his best lines are in the cerebral tradition of Steven Wright and the late Mitch Hedberg. Unlike these 2, however, AJ builds most of his act around extended pieces and development of themes, most of which are surprising and many of which are so out-of-bounds as to be offensive, so be forewarned: the routine includes some riffs on dropping babies (I could not laugh at these jokes), abortion (clearly offensive to many in the audience), murder-suicide (OK, this one is particularly funny, but would not be so to anyone dealing w/ a tragic suicide), date-rape, and a range of other topics, some of which are more typical for stand-up acts, such as religion and racism - and no reference to current or topical events or political themes: an unusual act by any measure. Overall, he poses as a cynic, an ironist, and a man who doesn't like children - and we do sense that it's a pose and an act. This special is guaranteed that you will laugh aloud at many of these riffs and jokes and that you will be offended by or at least disturbed by others.