Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Keith Robinson: Different Strokes’ On Netflix, The Comedian May Have Slowed Down, But He Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Joking Around

What a difference a decade makes! Since Keith Robinson got a major assist from Kevin Hart in presenting and releasing his first hour comedy special in 2014, Robinson suffered not one but two strokes (in 2016, then again in 2020), but has come back to the stage each time after lengthy rehabs. His durability and resilience are certainly evident. But how have his health problems over the past 10 years changed his point of view or his sense of humor?

KEITH ROBINSON: DIFFERENT STROKES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Robinson’s from South Philly, but he has been based in NYC for the better part of the past three decades and a fixture at the Comedy Cellar there.

That’s why he was a regular part of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central two decades ago, and released his first half-hour Comedy Central Presents special in season nine of that series in 2005 (available on Paramount+). Kevin Hart Presents: Keith Robinson – Back Of The Bus Funny premiered in 2014, and as I mentioned above, Robinson has overcome the two titular strokes that set him back, but not for long. Which is what he takes us through in this hour, dishing about his recovery and the challenges he has faced along the way.

Marcus Russell Price (producer of Max’s Expecting Amy) directed the special, which is executive-produced by Amy Schumer, who also featured Robinson as a co-host of her Spotify Original podcast, Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls, 1 Keith, which ran from 2018 until the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

You may perhaps more easily recognize Robinson, though, from his recent appearance performing in the Mark Twain Prize ceremony for Kevin Hart, which premiered last month on Netflix.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Robinson’s recovery from his multiple strokes stands literally and figuratively tall when compared to his contemporaries. The late Patrice ONeal never recovered from his 2011 stroke, whereas Sinbad, who like Robinson suffered a stroke in 2020, only just made his first major public appearance onstage last month at a tribute for him during last month’s Netflix Is A Joke festival.

Memorable Jokes: After recovering from two strokes, Robinson doesn’t quite quip that the third would be the charm, instead threatening: “One more, I’m gonna be Mitch McConnell.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, most of Robinson’s routines revolve around his new physical condition and conditioning. He recounts how he reacted when he saw a delivery truck parked in his handicapped space. After telling us how his belief in God helped pull him through the tough times, he jokes that he picked his particular religion based on which denomination offered the best afterlife option and R&B singers.

And he tells a wild story about how he was trying to get laid when he noticed the onset of his second stroke.

He gets the most mileage out of telling us what happened then and the aftermath, where the hospital he wound up in stuck him in the COVID ward, how he fought with his nurses even though he could never win.

Our Take: To get some perspective, let me show you what Robinson’s comedy looked and sounded like before his strokes, with this clip from his 2014 special.

He’s obviously much slower now, both physically and audibly. He has to measure his steps and his words. But he’s still essentially the same guy and comedian on the inside.

And that guy is beloved by his peers. He was a regular on the road with Wanda Sykes for years and served as her announcer and sidekick when she scored a short-lived late-night talk show on FOX in the late 2000s. Both Hart and Schumer have helped make sure Robinson has gotten his moments to shine onscreen, from his two specials, to roles in films such as Trainwreck.

Robinson mentored Hart, urging the young superstar-to-be to move up from Philly to NYC, and proved to be the funniest guy years later at Hart’s Mark Twain Prize ceremony.

At both that event and Robinson’s solo special, he joked about how Chris Rock has now nicknamed him Strokey Robinson.

Here, Robinson uses that joke at his expense to wonder why Will and Jada Pinkett Smith could’ve been so thin-skinned at the Oscars when Rock joked about them.

Robinson wants us to know that we all probably know somebody who has suffered a stroke, so while that might not make us medical experts, it shouldn’t also make us too sensitive about cracking wise, either. He’s fine with comedians busting his balls at the Cellar or otherwise, and isn’t worried about your feelings, either. “Y’all can laugh. Don’t worry about me,” he says. “We’re supposed to question the obvious.”

So when he decides to then mock parents who ask their young kids to choose their own gender identity, he admonishes us for considering him a transphobe because his punchline was based on the financial considerations of transition surgeries and treatments. “That was an economics joke,” Robinson says in his defense, before slyly adding: “God already cancelled my right side. What more do you want?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. As Robinson advises us, he learned from the past decade not to put off until tomorrow what you could and should do today. His lesson, “Live in the moment. Live in the now,” not only leads to some funny advice, but also provides him a great opportunity minutes later to prove that when something odd happens in the theater, Robinson hasn’t lost a step comedically.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.