I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 9, 2025] Kurtis Conner

My daughter and I saw Kurtis Conner three years ago.  I didn’t know him at al, but I knew my kids really liked him.  I came away from the show laughing really hard and having a really strong respect for him as a comedian.

I still have not really watched any of his YouTube stuff (what I’ve seen I like, but it’s off my radar).  But what really impressed me (and impressed me more this time) was how a YouTuber who effectively uses editing can do standup so well.  He is (mostly) comfortable in front of the audience (in fairness, everyone there loves him and there is nary a heckler in sight), and he clearly feeds off of the laughter.

Although he is (quite a bit) younger than me, I found it really interesting that his childhood sounded kind of similar to mine–defects and all.  Kurtis is a feminist and an ally, and proudly on both counts (which I found wonderful since my kids liked him so much).  But he’s also able to look back on his younger self with dismay at the way he (and kids in general) behaved.  It does make for good comedy too.  Like he regretted that when he was ten, he and his friends used to use “gay” as an insult.  Like he would be drawing and his friend would come up and he’d tell the guy to get away and stop being gay–and then go back to drawing the most detailed penis you’ve ever seen.

The show was called The Goodfellow Tour and it is named after where he grew up–on Goodfellow Street.  A road that had a ton of kids in it.  They used to play together all the time.  He had a lengthy but very funny bit about a kid in their group whom they all convinced had super fast speed.  They would do races all the time and the kid with super fast speed (who was in reality the slowest person in the world) would win. It went on all summer until the kid’s father found out.

This was all in aid of a running joke that he is a compulsive liar trying to fix that about himself.  But somehow, he keeps lying–throughout the show, even, making the jokes even funnier.

Kurtis told everyone that they could take pictures before the material started, but that everyone should put their phones away because we’re all addicted to them.  Including him.  He is addicted to reading hate comments.  The most lasting one for him is that he looks like “the final boss of lesbians” which he fully embraces.  He even imagined a video game called The Lesbian of Zelda in which he is the final threat at the end.

The end of the show was surprisingly touching.  He talked about having two dads–well, his real dad and his stepdad.  He made a hilarious joke about how he respects his real dad for walking out–he looked at what he was getting, said, I am not ready for this and left.  Respect to knowing your limits.

But he has always loved and respected his stepdad who recently died.  It was a lengthy bit and, as I said, surprisingly touching.  And yet, he managed to pull some hilarious jokes out of the story as well.  It was very cleverly constructed material.

My daughter (and apparently my son, too) loves Kurtis Conner.  They kept saying his name as if I had heard of him.  I had no idea who he was at all.  Turns out he is a YouTuber with a billion fans.

My daughter tells me that the Holy Trinity is Kurtis Conner. Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden (whom he has toured with in the past).  But without doubt, Conner (whose name is so simple and yet sound confoundedly hard to spell correctly with that K and the e) sits on top.

So what could Conner possibly do if he has made his career based on commenting on YouTube videos (or something).  And, I wondered aloud to both of my kids if I would enjoy this gig or not know what he was talking about.  I decided not to watch anything before hand s that I would have no expectations whatsoever.

So I’m glad I didn’t read this review beforehand

A big aspect of Conner’s set was integrating some of his classic jokes from his videos into his in-person stand-up punchlines. Of course he did it flawlessly, and I — along with everyone in the theater — loved it. Because prior knowledge of his jokes is needed, though, many of his references wouldn’t be understood by someone who didn’t watch Conner’s YouTube.

I have to say, aside from a few times when he said a line or catchphrase that people applauded (and I had no idea why), there was nothing about his show that I didn’t get.  And, best of all, I thought he was really funny.

There was a long build up for Kurtis to come on–a funny introduction which I believe has something to do with his video stuff.

I was surprised that the sort of framing device for the set was the pandemic.  We are still in it, he pointed out, even though you guys (the United States–Conner is Canadian) were over it long before anyone else.   He made some excellent jokes about anti-vaxxers and had a lengthy metaphor imagining bears being anti-hibernation.  He had thought that joke out in great detail and it worked from start to finish.  “the main difference is when bears were hibernating, there weren’t a bunch of other idiot bears just standing outside all of our dens screaming about how the winter is a hoax.”

He said that during the pandemic, he got into classic rock.  He said he loved the riffs and the solos, but the lyrics…?  “Have you guys ever listened to the lyrics of classic rock songs? Do yourself a favor and do not. Just live your life in blissful ignorance,”

He said he wrote down the lyrics of songs and then pulled a small red book.  And put on reading glasses (the one joke that would have worked better if we were closer).  He read the lyrics to “Stray Cat Blues” by the Rolling Stones.

I can see that you’re 15 years old. No, I don’t want your ID, and I can see that you’re so far from home

The audience responded with “No!” in-between bouts of laughter.  And that’s when I realized that I loved Kurtis Conner.  That he was calling out sexism–outstanding!

He proceeded to read the lyrics to “Christine Sixteen” by Kiss (which is the first Kiss song that I liked–of course I was 13 at the time, so it was okay for me–not for Gene Simmons to write the lyrics).

And then “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon.”  I loved how upset the crowd was by the lyrics.

I love that he says he asked his mom what the deal was back then.  Why were these lyrics acceptable?   “It was a different time.”  It was a time when pedophilia was cool?

He had a lengthy story at the end of the set in which he talked about meeting his girlfriend for the first time [he has recently married her, awwww].  It was an extended story and began with the first date when he went to her apartment for the first time.  Her roommates were big pot smokers.  ANd he was not.  I got a huge kick out of the way he described the evening.  He didn’t smoke pot, but he felt like he should in this case.

I had five beers and one weed.

Then he described how he woke up in his house and didn’t remember what happened.  When his girlfriend called him and explained what happened, it was horrifying and hilarious.  But the fact that she was still with him (and now married him) was the sweet topping to the story.

Apparently he has written songs for YouTube.  He implied that he’d be singing a song, but he didn’t exactly.  Rather, her delivered one liners over a song he “downloaded off of YouTube” that he said he’d never heard before.  The one liners were pretty funny and the song eventually devolved into a song with interruptions making fun of all kinds of things.

When I was reading another review, this person wrote about his bad language in the set

YouTube enforces strict guidelines on its creators and doesn’t allow monetization on videos that feature cursing … It was shocking to hear Conner curse and describe his experiences with alcohol and marijuana consumption. His YouTube content usually focuses on comical reviews of strange movies and trends.

So that’s kind of a funny insight into the show.  I wasn’t really surprised that he cursed so much.  It was a stand up show and he is Canadian (they are more free with the curses generally speaking).  But I didn’t find it distracting.  It just felt natural and conversational.  And hilarious.

I really enjoyed his set a lot and would certainly see him again.  I’ve also watched some of his videos since the show and really enjoyed them.  He’s funny and has a good message under it all.