Amazon is getting into the stand-up business, and it’s enlisted Jim Gaffigan to kick off the new venture. The streaming network announced today that Gaffigan’s next special, titled Quality Time, will debut on Amazon Prime Video sometime later this year. Quality Time will mark Amazon’s first-ever original stand-up comedy special and Gaffigan’s seventh special overall. It will be taped during Gaffigan’s upcoming performance the State Theatre in Minneapolis on March 9.
Gaffigan self-released his last special, Noble Ape, through production company Comedy Dynamics last year, opting to self-release it rather than take a deal at an outlet like Netflix, HBO, or Comedy Central. (Comedy Dynamics is also behind the Amazon special.) In an interview with The A.V. Club about the decision, he said, “As observers and comedy nerds, we look at other outlets and we go, ‘When are they going to step up? When is Amazon gonna step in?’” Apparently Amazon reads Jim Gaffigan interviews, because less than a year later, it did just that.
