he goes through these moments of serious, deep introspection, lulls the crowd into that state of empathy, and then hits us with a crack to break the tension.

And he hit on those cracks at a very high rate. And I think that's the special part of this. It's not unique by any stretch, but given the weight of the personal subject matter, it represents a high bar for the approach.

The whole thing was personal and intimate and real.