Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel

I liked him a lot on Saturday night live. He was great.

I guess it makes sense that this special is in a jazz club, because it's not really standup. It's more like sitting in on someone's therapy session, and in that sense it kind of winds around like a jazz song and keeps hitting certain themes repeatedly.

There are some funny lines here and there as he tells the story of his family, the kind you use to joke away pain. It's not a hahahaha hilarious standup special, it's more like a one-man show.

A therapy session where the viewer/audience is the therapist & Jerrod is the incredibly vulnerable patient attempting to come to grips with his truth amid the myriad of lies he grew up in. It is moving in its honesty, humor, & questions it dares ask.

Can a performer be quietly electric?

I believe so. Jerrod Carmichael is so real and raw here I was tempted, towards the end, to lace my fingers over my eyes and hold my breath in suspense.

In 'Rothaniel,' director Bo Burnham perfectly sets the mood with a long opening shot of Carmichael gradually coming into focus walking along the street under a light snow before entering a dim, hushed Blue Note.

The opening, the stage set, Carmichael's demeanor-all spoke of what was to come even before he opened with, "I want to talk about secrets."

For 57 minutes that felt like a lightning strike eternity, Carmichael spilled, interwoven with jokes, very funny commentary, amidst a two-way conversation with the crowd that made his bare intimacy much warmer than just stand-up meat. Long-held family secrets, personal secrets, real fear.

The fact that he may've fought tears toward the end (I cried briefly), to me, only burnishes the fact that Carmichael is funny as hell here. If you have ever been estranged from a parent, or hit with family secrets so deep they made you question who you are, you may just laugh even harder. I did.

Carmichael is edifying and empathetic supplying comedic relief while offering himself unconditionally. Melancholy at times due to life sensitivities but an essential show shedding light on millions more Carmichael's across the world.

I have watched all of his specials and was never impressed by any of them. It seemed to me his POV always had a mean streak in them, one that was unpleasant to watch. I decided to watch this one because of all the hype and was glad I did. His usual mean persona.was gone, replaced by an exposed and vulnerable person who was also funny and smart. I think all that meanness was the result of him hiding who he was. I'm glad he took the plunge and decided to finally tell the truth about himself. That is where his true funny will emerge. I expect great things from him now.