Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel

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.

Ive seen people give this special bad ratings saying stuff like "hes not making the jokes the whole time and instead talks about serious stuff, if you wanna be laughing the whole time watch 8." And yeah, thats technically true, but if thats your barometer for what a good special is then ligma ballllz and read a review before watching something. I think the special was moving, being funny when he wanted to and personal on his own terms. It worked well for me. Less go!

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.

Intimate, personal and challenges the heights and lenghts of your regular comedy special. Very emotionally raw, deeply funny and beautifully shot and edited. Carmichael shows a lot of vulnerability and does somethig I've never seen before - creates a rope between comedy and seriousness and constantly jumps from side to side.

This is a perfect display of the steps forward comedy is taking and how artists are loosing the fear of exposing their true human nature. Loved how caring the audience was, how they interacted with Jerrod and how open everyone seemed to be. Truly one of the best comedy shows I've watched and helped me regaining a little faith in humanity.

Jerrod Carmichael deserves all the love in the world and Bo Burnham proved again the value of his art and his craft.

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.