This past Sunday, popular YouTube Commentator and famed “Mayor of Kurtistown” Kurtis Conner stopped into the Mimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square for his “Goodfellow World Tour.” His style of comedy is reliant on snappy editing that felt at home on Vine, and overall leans into an awkward style of humor. Though he is funny, it’s an almost uncomfortable sense of humor. I was unsure if this would translate well onto the stage, especially after seeing reviews from his earlier stand-up sets claiming he was just unfunny and awkward. It is safe to say that while these concerns were warranted, Kurtis Conner has learned to hold his own on stage.

The opener for the show, like many of his previous shows, was his best friend and occasional guest on his YouTube channel, Jacob Sharpe. Sharpe served as a good compliment to Kurtis’s set, taking a personal but fundamentally immature tone that let the audience relax and have a good time. The bulk of his short set revolved around a little known fact about Sharpe: he is quite bald. In fact, he is “Cancer Bald.” He spent the rest of his set taking the audience through his journey after brain cancer, making light of it in a fun way. He then went on to the very controversial topic of bald men as a whole, poking fun at the stereotypes of horrible bald men and sharing personal experiences with them. He is truly not like other (bald) guys. Sharpe took a somewhat uncomfortable topic and was able to get the audience acclimated for the main set: Kurtis Conner.

Conner truly is an interesting person. As a Canadian with fairly immature humor who looks like he was pulled straight out of Bushwick, you never really know what to expect. Picture this: a white man with a mullet, mustache, baggy t-shirts, patchwork tattoos and the sense of a man who is somewhat “in touch with his feminine side.” I was not disappointed from a shock value perspective as his first bit centered around his general appearance.

He opened welcoming his lesbian fans and informing the audience that he consistently is told he looks like one. Having just attended the Performative Lesbian Contest hosted by WRUW this past week, I cannot disagree. This bit somehow led into “The Lesbians of Zelda,” a videogame concept he had come up with by combining his general love of video games and outside opinions on his style. It evolved in a manner similar to his videos, and by the end I was confused but laughing.

From this ridiculous starting point he transitioned into talking about his childhood habit of lying. He reminisced about when his deceased step-father would catch him playing video games late at night. Conner takes this throughline a little more seriously than “Lesbians of Zelda”—obviously—which further welcomes the audience in.

With a YouTube video, it is very easy to develop close or even parasocial connections between the performer and the audience. A major issue that Conner struggled with in his first tour “Keep Busy,” was keeping that close feel without just copying his YouTube style. Adding in these more personal moments solves the intimacy issue fairly well. This section narrowly avoided tonal whiplash and was a welcome addition that resonated with the audience.

Given how large the theater is, Conner did not have the wherewithal to do much crowd work, but he did insert it when able. He opens his bit about childhood lies by asking the audience about if they lied to be here. The crowd here was remarkably honest, much to the surprise of Conner. It was a cute bit that would have worked with a better crowd. From this he goes into a few lies he told as a child and the high he got from them. His big lie involved a whole neighborhood of kids tricking a younger child that he had super speed. It’s the kind of mean-spirited prank that kids just do. The kids of “Goodfellow Street”—the tour’s namesake—further relate to the audience, the good, the bad and the ugly. Conner’s anecdotes really are sweet and solidify the transition from digital personal to live personal.

Overall, the show was fun. While I doubt anyone in that theater was there as a fan of specifically Conner’s stand-up and not from his YouTube channel, his show has legs to stand on after initially failing to translate from video to real life. For pre-established fans, it’s a good time. If you’re not a resident of Kurtistown, the nosebleed seats are probably worth it.