‘Kevin James: Never Don’t Give Up’ On Netflix: The Sitcom Superstar Returns To Stand-Up After 17 Years

Some 17 years after recording his previous stand-up comedy special, Kevin James has made his Netflix debut with Never Don’t Give Up.
Stepping onstage at New York City’s Beacon Theatre to an ovation of applause, James bowed, soaked it all in, and joked: “I was not expecting that…I was expecting a little more.”
Say what you will about his movie choices or about his return to the CBS Monday-night sitcom lineup. All of his success on screens big or small came about due to his charming stardom as a stand-up comedian. So even though audiences have waited even longer than Kevin could wait to return to the stage, his new hour should not surprise you or anyone else as fulfilling you much like a heaping serving of comfort food.

Speaking of which, James naturally jokes about his weight fluctuations in middle age. He carries his size and physicality well. He’s always been preternaturally nimble — exhibit A: his 2009 box-office hit, Paul Blart: Mall Cop (and you thought I’d go with Here Comes The Boom). Watch in this special, for example, when James acts out the transformation from lazy people mover in an airport realizing he’s passing a Cinnabon.

James already was famous when he last released a stand-up special in 2001, but the changing times means he now can joke about how his fans ask for photos with him without knowing how to operate their phones, or that one fan who decided to videotape him from a foot away at the airport baggage claim, “like I’m a panda at the zoo.” He wonders: “When are you going to watch that video, ever?”
While it makes me curious to watch it right this second, James is off to share other observations.
He’s this close to cantankerous conservative old man territory with bits mocking people who have lost their tolerance to lactose and/or gluten, or those who abuse their ice-cream sampling privileges. To illustrate his point on the former, he harkens back to a classic photographic image of NYC construction workers, eating lunch all sitting in a row on a beam high above the skyline. “Toughen up, America. Toughen up,” James tells today’s audience. “Where are the men? Where have they gone?”
James has gone back to Long Island, where he shoots his new sitcom. The second half of this hour he devotes almost entirely to the difficulties he encounters raising his four children with his wife. A potentially embarrassing situation at the amusement park proves teachable for himself and the audience, as he covers his embarrassment with the called-back tag: “because that’s what a man does.”

Unlike supposed real men, James hasn’t gotten a real tattoo — although it does set up a closing bit of crowd work in which he asks several in the audience to describe their tattoos for him to comment upon, including one example that serves as this special’s title.
James joked that he once attended an Aerosmith concert and had to wait and clap along with the audience for 15 minutes before they came back out to perform Dream On. “I don’t like encores. They’re insincere,” he said. You don’t see other workers waiting for applause to complete their jobs. And you won’t see James holding back on you, either.
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 Kevin James: Never Don't Give Up on Netflix