@thecomicscomic Published Sep. 8, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET
Add Decider on Google Where to Stream: Stavros Halkias: Uncle Stav Powered by Reelgood More On: Stand-Up Comedy 11 Best New Movies on Netflix: September 2026’s Freshest Films to Watch Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jared Freid: The Family Plan’ On Netflix, On This Millennial’s Anxious Attachment To His Boomer Parents Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Stamptown’ On Netflix, A Comedy Variety Showcase Unlike Anything You’ll Ever See On Netflix Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kelsey Cook: Happy Hour’ On Netflix, A Comedian Who Knows When To Give You The Thumbs Down Stavros Halkias had to postpone the taping of his second Netflix special by three months after he broke his arm in a scooter accident this April. Don’t expect him to joke about that in this hour. But do expect him to make good on why he wanted to film at the Lyric Theatre in his hometown of Baltimore. There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, both in terms of Stavvy, as well as his hourlong special.
The Gist: Broken arm aside, it has been a good 12 months to be Stavros Halkias.
At this time last year, Halkias was enjoying a breakthrough big-screen role in the Oscar-nominated film, Bugonia, opposite Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone. This summer, he charmed his way into scene-stealing support as a chef in the fictionalized Anthony Bourdain film, Tony. And he returned for the third season of the Netflix comedy series, Tires, as Dave, the lovable dirtbag store manager.
Tony‘s director, Matt Johnson, is behind the camera for Stavvy’s second Netflix special.
Memorable Jokes: Halkias reveals he had lost 70 pounds by the time he filmed this hour, and yet he still fits into his XXXL clothing. “Do you know how fat you have to be to not be medically cleared for stand-up comedy? And this is the healthiest I’ve been in years.” He jokingly chalks it up to living his best life for the past 900 days, even if that best life involved him giving into his food addictions as if he were living “the day you give a dog before you euthanize it.”
He jokes he wasn’t prepared to for the life that faces a real overweight man in his late 30s today. “I thought I was cruising for a King Of Queens-style existence,” he says. Instead: “I have the cheeks of a minor Disney character.”
Somehow, his idea of Amsterdam’s red-light district was more romantic than the reality, too, which he hilariously demonstrates through an act-out of waiting in line behind aggressively annoying European guys.
Among his more current observations: thoughts on how the killing of a health care CEO resulted in only limited benefits for the rest of us, because unlike the French, “we don’t riot enough in this country”; how everyone in tech trying to convince us to use AI just proves that “our economy is fake,” with him noting: “We basically invented Google that calls you handsome, and they’re pretending it’s a technological breakthrough.”; and how tech bros also ruined gambling, replacing Native American casinos which forced gamblers to go to great lengths and think about the scourge of colonizing their land with, what, a get-poor-quick scheme on your phone? And even if you do win,“it doesn’t beat the-Mafia’s-not-going-to-kill-you good” feeling you’d experience in a casino.
Our Take: The Lyric opened as Baltimore’s concert hall in 1894, home at various eras to Baltimore’s symphony as well as its opera company. Halkias tells us he was 18 when he watched from the back row of the balcony as Chris Rock performed there. “And now culture has degraded to the point that I get to play these kinds of theaters.”
Halkias is being much too hard on himself. Whether or not culture has, in fact, degraded, the comedian has earned his place among the ranks of touring performers.
His earliest comedy fans found him through the Cum Town podcast he co-hosted with fellow NYC comedians Nick Mullen and Adam Friedland, one of the top podcast earners on Patreon and heralded in the late-2010s, unfairly or not, as part of the rise of the so-called “dirtbag left” espousing progressive ideas while refusing to adhere to societal proprieties. This hour certainly leans into the concept of Stavvy’s fans being dirtbags, with a running subplot involving an audience member who’s perhaps a bit too excited to get face time with the comedian, and another guy in the audience who’s abruptly escorted out of the building by security for shouting once too often. Never you mind that we’re not entirely sure what to make of all of this. Halkias and the guy who made Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie have something up their cinematic sleeves.
And throughout the hour, Halkias positions himself and his fans as people who just want to enjoy themselves. If that’s the case, then why would they want anyone else to not have as much fun as they are?
So Halkias makes fun of the police for their lack of customer service skills (“Every cop talks to you like you just f—ed their girlfriend.”) while also noting their glee at taking the high road compared to the thuggery of ICE officials in Minnesota. If the jokes supporting Luigi Mangione and attacking AI weren’t enough to convince you of his progressive bona fides, he also goes hard on famous people such as Ben Shapiro or JK Rowling, or anyone else who’s weirdly obsessed with cancel culture, the ability to utter slurs in public, and the very idea of trans people living their own lives. “There’s like 80 trans people total, and half the country wants to be very rude to them for some reason. You gotta respect what trans people are up to. They’re trying to get hot against God’s will.”
And Halkias can jokingly identify with that. Even if he also considers himself hot already.
Our Call: STREAM IT. This isn’t even in the special, but a joke Halkias cracks about how his own obesity prevents him from having sex with fat women solely due to “geometry,” suggesting “I’d have to be lowered from the ceiling Mission: Impossible style” begets an entire re-enactment of the classic 1996 movie scene for one of this special’s promotional teasers. In both the promo as well as his dream scenario onstage, he enjoys himself too fast, too furiously. The joke is on him, but without any of the pitfalls of self-deprecation. This is a guy who loves who he is and what he’s doing. And that kind of presence always wins over audiences.
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.
