Comedian Roy Wood Jr. is playing two shows at Blue Note Hawai'i, and the pitch is that live comedy is one of the few things left that a corporate merger or an algorithm cannot touch.

• Two sets are booked for the night, at 6:00 and 9:30, with doors and food service starting earlier.
• The stand-up is deliberately less political than the TV work, leaving room to roam across everyday subjects.
• Keeping up with the news is getting harder for satire shows — the cycle moves so fast that stories break between taping and air.
• The recent Hulu special centers on loneliness in America, blaming phones and the leftover distance from the pandemic for how disconnected people feel.
• In a tight economy, people spending money just to leave the house is treated as the highest compliment an audience can pay.

Outlook: Expect live comedy to keep drawing crowds as audiences look for something real that no platform controls.