Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Here’s the thing about Chris Gethard: Career Suicide on HBO.
Not only is debuting your first one-man show on HBO the exact opposite of career suicide, but also having Judd Apatow ask to executive produce and fine-tune your show after a year and a half of workshopping it in theaters from New York City to Edinburgh and back means your show business aspirations are moving in the right direction. Furthermore, if you’re going to watch an introspective retrospective about 15 years of battling depression, suicidal thoughts and substance abuse, this is far from a depressing way to go about it.
In fact, I counted at least 31 positive affirmations, hot tips and laugh-out-loud moments you can take away from Chris Gethard: Career Suicide on HBO Go and HBO NOW – but since your friends already are way too busy dissecting the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why, I’ve distilled my list accordingly.
1) Throughout his performance, from beginning to end, Gethard comes across as reassuring, even if at times he’s on the verge of breaking into tears. “I want you to know. I see a shrink. We’re good. I’ve been actually seeing the same shrink since 2007,” he tells us up front. Moreover, his relationship with his psychiatrist has enough offbeat elements to pitch Gethard & Barb as a cable sitcom: “He’s melancholy. She’s quirky!” Are you listening, Freeform?
2) One of Barb’s theories, as retold by Gethard, will make you want to watch The Matrix. That’s never not a bad decision.
3) Fun fact about the HBO taping: Because they taped two performances, that means the people sitting in the front sofas actually watched him say all of this twice for continuity, and they all kept smiling and laughing, even the second time around!
4) Gethard doesn’t only talk about sad subjects. He also has chosen sides in the eternal debate among comics and superhero fans between Marvel and DC: “DC Comics are bullshit. Always have been. They have a character called the Blue Beetle.”
5) When you are feeling blue, there’s nothing quite like a sad song that speaks to you and can remind you someone else gets you. For Gethard, that’s The Smiths and lead singer Morrissey. Gethard even breaks into song, a cappella, not once, not twice, but three times. And reveals just how much of a cross-cultural icon Morrissey is.
6) For those of you still wondering how true to New Jersey HBO’s breakthrough hit The Sopranos was, Gethard offers even more testimonials.
7) Gethard punctures the myth that taking anti-depressants, or by the same token, quitting drugs and alcohol will also put a stop to your creativity. “I am significantly f—ing funnier, on medication.” His so-called comedic genius ideas during college, on the other hand, not so funny in hindsight and with a clear head. Gethard also offers us a funny and more preferable future that still includes a living Kurt Cobain. And besides, the side effects of anti-depressants are always ripe for comedic exploration. Which Gethard mines past the point of TMI.
8) Speaking of funnier in hindsight, you’ll want to look up the recorded history of former NFL great Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson to read/listen to his musings with a new perspective after hearing Gethard’s revelations.
9) Speaking of revelations, here’s an old TV ad for H&R Block that he references, in which he wears lederhosen.
10) You’ll learn how long a bachelor can live in New York City without a gas connection in his apartment.
11) You’ll also learn which long-running live comedy show is run about as sloppy and entertaining as the NBA All-Star Game, and which TV star in one of those shows once burned Gethard with a zinger so hot it forced him to walk offstage in a panic attack.
12) For you bachelors looking for a hot dating tip, he’ll also point you to the best place to take your date for a romantic view of the Manhattan skyline. “You’re gonna hook up that night, trust your boy Gethard on that one!” he says. “Don’t tell her you found out in a suicide show!”
13) And his one-man show has a truly happy ending. So to speak.
And if you’re not feeling lucky with 13 reasons, here’s a fourteenth: Gethard sat down with some other comedians (Wyatt Cenac, Phoebe Robinson, Aparnat Nancherla and Patti Harrison) to talk about mental health, just to let you know even more that you’re not alone.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
