Immediately after comedian Conner O’Malley performed at what was then Pittsburgh’s up-and-coming comedy venue Bottlerocket Social Hall, he texted his friend Joe Pera.

In an interview with Pittsburgh City Paper, Pera, an alternative comedian known for his television series Joe Pera Talks With You, recalls O’Malley texting, “This place in Pittsburgh is great. Good size venue, and you’d like the style there.”

Pera recently booked the Allentown venue and Pittsburgh welcomed him with open arms with two quickly sold-out shows. “That was wild,” Pera says.

Those two sold-out shows have since expanded into something more. Pera will develop new material during a residency at Bottlerocket, performing six shows across five days at the end of October. The residency follows the early October release of his first-ever comedy special, Slow and Steady, available for free on YouTube.

“So then, now that I filmed the special and gotta start creating material, I thought it would be extremely fun to try to start developing a new hour there,” Pera says.

Pera will, from Tue., Oct. 24-Sat., Oct. 28, perform once per day, with two shows happening on Saturday. As of publication, Bottlerocket has completely sold out of residency tickets, each of which went for $20.

Pera, a Buffalo, N.Y. native now based in New York City, has performed stand-up comedy for years but became well-known thanks to his strange, sweet, and thoughtful Adult Swim comedy series Joe Pera Talks with You, which ran for three seasons, from 2018 through 2021, before being canceled. In each of the show’s 11-minute episodes, Pera speaks directly to the camera about a given subject, such as grocery stores, fireworks, and beans, all while a story plays out about a fictionalized version of Pera and his family, friends, and neighbors.

Pera describes his special as being more focused on comedy but still familiar to people already acquainted with the vibes of the television show.

“I wanted them to think, ‘Oh, that’s funny and interesting,’ but really have some good, solid laughs and a fun night out,” Pera says.

When Pera did stand-up before the release of his television show, he had to introduce audiences to his unique persona, and much of the set spun out of that “tension,” he says. Pera speaks slowly, in a way that implies he’s carefully and thoughtfully choosing his words. When he toured after the cancellation of his show, Pera, now known and with a dedicated audience, used audience reactions to evolve his craft.

“Before the tour, I’ve always been very writing-focused. I would get the perfect, most concise joke. I had to get every word right,” Pera says. “And I think there were moments on tour where I loosened up in a way that kinda shocked myself and just had fun with the audience in a more present way than I had ever been on stage.”

Pera performed at Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall in May 2022 and enjoyed the crowd.

“The audience in Pittsburgh was kind of rowdy in a very fun way,” Pera says. “They were excited to see me, and it was fun to kind of have a playful back-and-forth with them doing crowd work. And I wanted that energy to be in all of the live shows that I do.”

Pera skyrocketed in popularity following his show. He had a small role in the latest Pixar film, Elemental, in which he played the tree-like man Fern. As he became more of a household name, comparisons of Pera to Pittsburgh icon Mister Rogers have become commonplace. Pera doesn’t look to Rogers as an inspiration, though.

“It’s fine, but I’m not doing a children’s show,” Pera says. “I think he had a lot of good qualities that, if they come across in my comedy, that’s great, but I’m not trying to be Mister Rogers.”

Viewers will find that Slow and Steady is both a great show and a distillation of Pera’s stand-up comedy vision. It garners big laughs about topics ranging from open relationships to Pera’s similarities in looks and mannerisms to late serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The last 10 minutes or so veers into more emotional territory as it utilizes the same kind of whimsical storytelling and sweetness of Pera’s television series.

The special also serves as a compelling thesis from Pera about the kind of environment he wants to create with his stand-up comedy: a shared space where the audience can laugh and be happy together amid a metaphorically sweltering world. Later this month, Pittsburgh audiences will get to watch Pera figure out what he wants the next chapter of his stand-up career to be.

“I think it’ll have a large part in shaping where the next special goes, and the type of stuff that I’m gonna talk about, and the new things to try out,” Pera says. “So I’m equally nervous, afraid, and excited about trying to figure it out with an audience.”