Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel

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.

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.

But I don't see that as a bad thing.

It's been awhile since I've seen a new comedian who didn't think 'funny' was to tear others down.

Jerrod's humour comes from the pain/truth of his life. That's both funny and sad.

The throw away line that he could never bring someone home to meet his Mom, will stick with you. For you hope that it's not true; but feel for him because he believes it.

By the end, you will cheer for him to find happiness and acceptance.

It's a rare performance well worth your time.

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!