Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Pete Davidson: Alive From New York’ On Netflix, A Tell-All That Leaves You Wanting More

Last year, Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson attempted to keep a lid on his stand-up material by asking his audiences to sign non-disclosure agreements so as not to tell all to the tabloids. All because he wanted you to see and hear Pete Davidson: Alive From New York first on Netflix. So…

PETE DAVIDSON: ALIVE FROM NEW YORK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: At this point, it’s likely you know more about Davidson’s offscreen life than for any character or Weekend Update bit he’s done as a cast member on SNL. Both his relationship status and his mental state have even become fodder for jokes on SNL. Two days after he recorded his Netflix special in December, Davidson made light of his situation from behind the Update desk, saying he was heading back into rehab.

So yeah, keep that in mind when you’re watching his special.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: This performance is so raw, director Jason Orley leaves in not just the parts Davidson says he’d cut from the special, but also the aside the comic makes to him from onstage about a joke he wants left in, too. Orley also wrote and directed Davidson in Big Time Adolescence, the 2019 Sundance Film Festival stand-out that’ll debut on Hulu in March.

Memorable Jokes: Davidson grabs our attention from his opening line:”So Louis CK tried to get me fired from SNL my first year, and this is that story.” Five years after that event, Davidson not only has proven CK wrong, but also can enjoy having the last laugh on him, as well as on the show that helped turn him into a household name. It may sound like self-deprecating hype, but when he recalls reassuring himself in 2015 with the idea, “F– (SNL). They’re the ones who look stupid anyway. They hired and fired you. They’re wrong twice,” he’s landing a punchline that hits even harder in the wake of last year’s Shane Gillis fiasco. For what it’s worth, Davidson imagines he would have survived a first-season firing of his own by retreating back to Wild ‘N Out.

That’s all before the opening credits, mind you.

Halfway through the special, Davidson starts dishing more about some of the times his jokes or his love life has made headlines. As he jokingly explains: “This is pretty much what it is, because I don’t have, like, Twitter, so I can’t, like, explain myself every time something bad happens. I was like, ‘I guess I’ll just shoot a special and tell everybody.’ Yeah, since I’m not allowed on the Internet.” Davidson has, in fact, deleted his Instagram and other social media profiles multiple times.

So he uses his stand-up as a way to explain how he came to roast 2018 Republican congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw on SNL in the first place, and says not to blame him for Crenshaw winning his election days later. Davidson uses that story to segue into his whirlwind romance with Ariana Grande, also from that year.

Whether or not Grande really “ruined Starbucks” for Davidson, she did write a banging hit song in the wake of their breakup (“Thank U, Next”), while the comedian emerged with a series of models, actresses, and model/actresses ranging in age from 46 to 18. Perhaps because of comments Grande made about his manhood. That may seem like a grand move on Grande’s part. But as Davidson quips, “she has tiny little hands,” and thus, the reality is more of a cruel joke on him.

Our Take: After all of this, Davidson is still just 26 years old.

He also lives back on Staten Island, where he grew up, in the basement of a home where his mom and sister live upstairs. Of course, Davidson could buy this particular home to provide for his family, so he chose that basement lifestyle. And he recorded this special just before going back into rehab to adjust his medications he takes for a variety of ailments, from the physical (Crohn’s disease) to the psychological (bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, PTSD). He only talks indirectly about the PTSD in his act, reminding audiences that his dad was a New York firefighter who died on 9/11, when Pete was just 7. And you’ll have to not let Netflix credits scroll and jump past you before hearing one more story about Davidson’s dad.

But there’s so much left unsaid here.

So much, in fact, that Davidson’s conversation this past weekend with Charlamagne Tha God lasts longer (52 minutes) than his Netflix special (49 minutes, including credits).

That’s even with multiple non-sequiturs from Davidson onstage made just for Netflix (or at the expense of the streaming giant), from a recurring bit he inserts in the middle of his Crenshaw story just in case anyone paused his special, to a curse word he avoids because his special will air on Nickelodeon instead, to the most damning throwaway aside, when even Davidson takes a jab at the overwhelming content in this digital comedy boom. “Like I said, they’re just giving them out to everybody on Netflix.”

But Davidson is not just anybody. He never has been. And he’s certainly no “has-been” now.

Even if this special does feel, at times, like a rough draft. If only he’d come back and do it again, as Richard Pryor did when he eventually reshot what would become his classic 1982 concert film, Live on the Sunset Strip.

Our Call: STREAM IT if you’re here for that hot gossip, but SKIP IT if you want to wait for even better Pete Davidson stuff to come. Because it’s coming quite soon. He stars in Big Time Adolescence, which hits Hulu on March 20, and stars in his very own biopic he co-wrote with Judd Apatow, The King of Staten Island, premiering next month at SXSW.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Pete Davidson: Alive From New York on Netflix