Joel Kim Booster
Self
Overview
Comedian Joel Kim Booster riffs on leaked selfies, dining at P.F. Chang's, keeping secrets and why cats are better than dogs as he hits the stage in LA.
Cast
Reviews
4 min readThe Stand-Up Special as Confession Booth
I’ve seen Joel Kim Booster’s Psychosexual three times now, and each viewing leaves me with the same unsettling question: Is this a comedy special, or is it a man talking himself into—and out of—shame in real time? The answer, of course, is both. That’s the trick of it.
Booster isn’t just riffing on leaked nudes, P.F. Chang’s, or why cats are better than dogs (though he does all of that, with the kind of precision that makes you wonder if he’s been rehearsing these bits in the shower for years). He’s performing the act of being seen—fully, unapologetically, and sometimes uncomfortably—while simultaneously testing how much the audience is willing to see with him.
The special opens with Booster already in motion, pacing the stage like a man who’s just remembered something he forgot to be embarrassed about. He’s got the kind of energy that makes you lean in, not because he’s telling a joke you haven’t heard before, but because he’s telling it to you, specifically, like he’s letting you in on a secret he’s not even sure he wants to keep. That’s the first layer of Psychosexual: the performance of intimacy.
Stand-up is always a kind of seduction, but Booster doesn’t just want your laughter—he wants your complicity. He wants you to nod along when he says, “I found out that all my nudes leaked online,” and then pause just long enough for the room to register the violation before adding, “Obviously, I was angry. I felt violated.” The pause is crucial.
It’s the moment where the joke could collapse into something raw, something real. But then he pivots: “But then I found out they were on a male celebrity nudes site, and I was like… they can stay.”
That’s the second layer: the alchemy of turning shame into power. Booster doesn’t just joke about his leaked nudes—he weaponizes them. He turns the violation into a flex, the kind of thing you’d brag about at a party if you were the kind of person who bragged about things like that.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.0/10
"A hit-or-miss comedy special that shines in personal storytelling but struggles with pacing and depth."
Joel Kim Booster’s humor resonates most when he dives into cultural identity and personal anecdotes, offering sharp and relatable insights. latestnetflix.com's view is that however, the special’s uneven pacing and occasional reliance on familiar comedy tropes leave some viewers wanting more substance and consistency.
What viewers praise
- Sharp cultural commentary Booster’s observations on growing up Asian and navigating identity are both funny and thought-provoking.
- Relatable humor Personal stories about leaked selfies, family dynamics, and dating resonate with audiences.
- Engaging stage presence Booster’s charisma and energy keep the performance lively and entertaining.
Common complaints
- Uneven pacing Some segments drag while others feel rushed, disrupting the flow of the special.
- Familiar tropes A few jokes and themes lean on well-worn comedy formulas, reducing freshness.
- Limited depth While funny, some topics could have been explored with more nuance and insight.
Recommended for
Fans of stand-up comedy Asian-American humor lovers Joel Kim Booster followers Cultural identity explorations Lighthearted comedy seekers
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThe nudes leaked on Christmas Eve. He left them up.
Joel Kim Booster did not wait for a tabloid to turn his leaked photos into a punchline. In Psychosexual, his first Netflix special, he tells the Catch One crowd in Los Angeles that he found out on Christmas Eve. "I found out that all my nudes leaked online," he says in the trailer Netflix posted in June 2022. "Obviously, I was angry, I felt violated," then the turn. The pictures had landed on a site for male "celebrity" nudes. "They can stay." NextShark later printed the rest of the bit, including the line that he does not send nudes anymore. He sends the link. PinkNews noted he had joked about wanting a leak as far back as 2018 and 2019 tweets. The gossip was never whether the photos existed. latestnetflix.com's take is that it was whether a streamer would keep the Christmas Eve reveal in an hour of stand-up.
, ,
Netflix dated the special to June 21, 2022. Deadline and Variety both called out the three-act shape and the room. Catch One. Doron Max Hagay directed and produced with Booster, Zack Freedman, Tony Hernandez, Seamus Murphy-Mitchell, and Brooke Posch. Tudum sold the hour as sex talk, Asian cultural code-switching, threesomes, and masturbation tips from a comic already famous for Instagram thirst traps. The Netflix logline still mentions leaked selfies, dining at P.F. Chang's, keeping secrets, and why cats beat dogs. TMDB lists the runtime at 1 hour 7 minutes. 
, 
, ,
June 2022 was a pile-up. Hulu's Fire Island, which Booster wrote, produced, and starred in with Bowen Yang and Margaret Cho, arrived June 3 as a Pride and Prejudice riff set on a week of cheap rose in the Pines. Apple TV+'s Loot, with Maya Rudolph, followed on June 24. In between he took the Dynasty Typewriter stage on May 8 for Netflix Is a Joke. Entertainment Weekly's Pride cover, quoted in the Yahoo clip write-up, had him talking about the weight of working in mostly heterosexual comedy rooms and how trips to the Pines with other gay comics felt like a release. Psychosexual is the hour that puts that mouth on a Netflix stage without a rom-com plot to hide behind. , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9hnR0EKApw
Tudum also reaches back to his 2018 album Model Minority. He talks about growing up adopted by a white family in a white Midwestern town, and the later friction of not matching "cultural expectations of what an Asian person should be in this country." The special is where that joke sits next to the leaked-photo joke. Netflix Is a Joke posted the official trailer. Grindr ran a 69 Questions interview that ends by pointing viewers to the special. The Catch One set is still the debut Netflix hour, not a victory-lap clip show, and the leak bit is the line people kept repeating the week it landed. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Similar Movies
Related titles ranked by rating and popularity.
