Adam Sandler’s Netflix Comedy Special Takes Place in a Fake Comedy Club

(Editor’s Note: The following (article contains some possible spoilers for “Adam Sandler: Love You.”)

There is something out about the Southern California comedy club playing host to Adam Sandler’s latest Netflix comedy special, “Adam Sandler: Love You.” It’s… carpeted? Even the walls? There’s a hole under de facto musical director Dan Bulla’s rig, and his keyboard slides through it. There’s a dog wandering around. And the Windows 95 monitors just don’t work, which takes a big bite out of some of Sandler’s visually-reliant jokes. And it absolutely stinks.

And while you might not immediately notice it in the opening moments of the Josh Safdie-directed special, you’ll quickly get the joke. That club? It may look and feel familiar — sort of like, well, maybe the basement of a suburban library? — but it’s also a space that’s not precisely exist. When Sandler and Safdie brought their special to New York City for its premiere last week, they spent much of the screening’s post-Q&A (moderated by “Saturday Night Live” star Sarah Sherman) talking about the set that’s home to Sandler’s latest comedy offering, and which features plenty of its own humor.

“That whole set that we built, the idea was, let’s make it the worst location ever,” Safdie said. “This kind of liminal space where you feel like you know, but you don’t.” Sherman jumped in, “I saw a picture of the set and I sent it to Ronnie (Bronstein, producer), and I was like, ‘That looks a lot like the basement of the Great Neck Public Library, where I used to do improv shows with anime nerds when I was 14,’ and Ronnie was like, ‘Well, that’s the basement where I learned to play guitar with degenerates!’ The same basement of the local library.”

Safdie made it clear that the show not shot in said public library, but that it may have served as inspiration for the look and feel of the show. What kind of place would have old “bad” monitors that didn’t work, serving as a point of contention in the middle of what could have been a more traditional comedy special? Safdie called on production designer Sam Lisenco to help come up with that idea.

The special was taped in a real theater in Glendale, California, over the course of six full shows, all nearly three hours long, and trimmed down to a tight hour for “Love You.” When asked how the (also very real) live audience reacted to some of the crazier set issues, such as the hole opening up under Bulla’s keyboard, Safdie said, “I remember after the first show, someone who worked on the crew went up to Ronnie and said, ‘You’ll get it next time, it’s all good.’ That was the biggest compliment. The only person who really received It was Chris Rock, he was at one of the shows, he was the only person who said, ‘I didn’t buy any of it.’ And I was like, ‘Why?’ and he said, ‘Because I know Sandler, and he would have broken everyone’s neck.’

To get the look she wanted, Safdie’s team went all out, from wall to wall (and actually on the walls) carpet and those bad monitors, and the set design people came in to “make it look like it’s been there for 60 years, and cigarettes are out (on the chairs), and a two-liter bottle of Coke is knocked over somewhere,” as the director explained. “It really had an atmosphere there. You really feel like you’re there, hanging out with your friends.”

“Adam Sandler: Love You” is now streaming on Netflix.