A comedian who releases an hour of material generally stops performing it immediately afterwards. The decision follows from what a recording does to the value of live jokes.
Recording removes the surprise permanently
A joke depends on the audience not knowing the turn, and a widely available recording gives that turn to everyone who might buy a ticket.
An audience that already knows the punchline can still enjoy the delivery, but the reaction is recognition rather than surprise, and the performance changes character entirely.
Because touring audiences are largely the same people who watched the special, continuing to perform it means playing to rooms that have heard it.
The economics require a fresh hour
Live performance is where most touring income is earned, and tickets are sold on the promise of material that has not been released.
A comedian who cannot offer that has nothing to sell beyond the recording, which is why the release of a special is usually followed by an immediate return to development.
Retirement is what makes a special final
Knowing the material will not be performed again changes how it is recorded, since the special becomes the definitive version rather than one instance of an ongoing set.
It also explains the care taken over filming, because a performer is preserving something they are about to stop doing rather than documenting a stage of work.
Some comedians perform a farewell run of the material before recording, treating those shows as the last chance to see it live.
The cycle sets the pace of releases
Building a replacement hour takes a year or more of small-room work followed by touring, which is why the gap between specials is measured in years.
Performers who release more frequently are usually working from a deeper backlog or performing shorter sets, since the development time cannot be compressed much.
What survives retirement
Certain bits return, often reworked into something different or referenced briefly, and requests from audiences keep a handful of famous routines partially alive.
Crowd work is exempt entirely, since it is generated in the room and cannot be repeated, which is part of why it has become a larger share of live shows.
That shift has been reinforced by short-video clips of improvised exchanges, which promote a tour without spending any of the recorded material.