John Early: Now More Than Ever

John Early is a force! I could not believe the creativity of this special. You never know what to expect from someone like him, a sporadic and consistently funny comedian. Not only is it HILARIOUS, but he also shows off how multifaceted he is. The band and his musical numbers bring an element of comfort and chaos that is missing from a lot of things nowadays. He is a wildly talented singer in his own right! Keeping me both entertained and on the edge of my seat, John Early gives you all of him and more. I can't wait to see his career evolve. I'm convinced that some of my generations greatest comedies will come from this mind!

No one does what John Early does.

Don't even try. Because he has perfected it.

I've been watching John Early's career for quite a while now. My introduction to him was his episode of Netflix's "The Characters". It's my favorite episode of the whole series. It features some incredible characters, including the funniest character I've ever seen done, Vicky with a V. I became enamored with his strong and unique comedic POV from that episode onward.

I then stumbled upon his sketches with his comedic partner, Kate Berlant. These two are dynamite together.

John is consistently hilarious in all of his talk show interviews, and he is always doing something out of the box. A complete original.

This comedy special was an amalgamation of everything I love about John Early and his ultra-specific POV. His jokes are so laser-focused and he delivers them so intensely that I was laughing uncontrollably in my apartment as my seven-month-old puppy stared at me in confusion. Sweet Pea, I swear I'm not crazy, I'm just watching the funniest stand up special I've ever seen in my life.

John provided stand up, sketch, and musical material, and he knocked every last one out of the park.

The Postmates bit had me howling. Absolutely howling. He took all of the things that make Millennials feel like they have a unique personality, and spit all over their now-occupied graves. As a Millennial, it felt so good to be made fun of. Genuinely, what have we become? *fire emoji*

John Early deserves every last bit of his success and even more. Can't wait to see what he does next.

I needed this comedy special Now More Than Ever. Thank you, John.

I became aware of John Early from a Seth Meyers interview which got me to dive into the massively underrated show Search Party. His comedic presence is so intelligent and unique, it's really hard to describe to people but I truly believe Early is one of the funniest performers working right now. In Now More Than Ever, I learned he's also a phenomenal musician. I mean it. I would buy tickets just to see him sing - it's incredible. He performs four well-chosen cover songs with a live band whose members are also featured in sketch comedy bits mainly in the first half-hour.

The trouble with this hour-long special is it's edited from a performance that was clearly much longer than one hour and the short sketches use up time and affect the flow of the live portion. I'm always impressed by how stand-ups keep an audience laughing for a full hour or more. This special takes the viewer at home out of that experience. At times it feels like a few YouTube clips strung together. If Early is trying to showcase his many talents he certainly succeeds but if you're making an HBO Special, you've already "made it" as a performer; no one needs a demo reel.

I give this an 8/10. I highly recommend Search Party and John Early's sketch special Would It Kill You To Laugh? With Kate Berlant over on Paramount+.