Hannibal Buress

July 16, 2020, 4:38pm

In what is surely a comedy special first, Miami Nights opens with Buress promoting a meeting startup. Then it cuts to 2017, as Buress addresses his viewers via Miami police officer Luis Verne’s body camera, saying, “Hey what’s up. It’s me, Hannibal Buress. This cop’s stupid as fuck.” Then, before his special begins, there is a throwback 2002 set of Buress performing as “Hannibal: Amir Natural,” in a style that mirrors Mitch Hedberg. These clips, along with the audiovisual tweaks throughout, make it an interesting special aesthetically. And Buress makes sure these quirks are always in service of a joke, not to fill gaps.

Miami Nights is the first comedy special directed by Kristian Mercado Figueroa, and it’s unlike any other special that has been released this year, and perhaps ever. Its title, and a large chunk of the set, focuses on Hannibal Buress’s 2017 arrest for disorderly intoxication in Miami. At a time when violent and fatal shootings by police have been a constant fixture of the news cycle, Buress’s experience provides a light and cathartic roasting of a specific police officer. But even in this retelling of a drunken night in Miami, there is a concern of who this country allows to be cops.

Released on July 3 and shot at the Olympia theater in downtown Miami, Miami Nights marks Buress’s fifth special. The overall aesthetic makes for a unique visual experience, as Buress uses a giant screen to pull up visual aids during the show. There are also post-production tweaks, like Buress talking in a pitched-down Satanic voice and asides crooned in Auto-Tune. In a bit about Prince performing multiple encores, Buress’s act-out has been cut and pasted multiple times in a row, creating a dizzying montage for the viewer.