Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lil Rel Howery: I Said It. Y’All Thinking It’ On HBO Max, A Chicago Comedian At Home With Himself

Lil Rel Howery returned to his native Chicago to film his second HBO comedy special, and so enjoyed his homecoming that he savored his final minute onstage to soak it all in. Could he fill the hour before that finale with as much pomp, majestic moments or musical stories as he had in his first HBO hour, Live in Crenshaw? Did he even need to this time around?

LIL REL HOWERY: I SAID IT. Y’ALL THINKING IT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Howery jokingly stops during this hour to acknowledge his gratitude at how he keeps getting booked “amazing roles” on the big screen, which have made him more and more recognizable to audiences everywhere. It’s a run that began in earnest five years ago with Get Out, Bird Box, and Uncle Drew, accelerating over the past two years to include Free Guy, Bad Trip, Vacation Friends, and most recently offering advice to Patton Oswalt in I Love My Dad.
Howery is a dad in real life, and now jokes about how he’s finding himself playing second fiddle to his own kids.
If you watched Amy Schumer’s Parental Advisory showcase this summer on Netflix, then you would’ve seen and heard a thematically-relevant routine from him about how his tween daughter and son have got him on the ropes, psychologically at least, as a single father. For HBO, Howery is willing to make himself the butt of the joke even harder when it comes to dealing with his kids, but also reveals how therapy has allowed him to not be too hard on himself, as well. He also dishes about some infamous moments caught on film over the past year, from a pastor robbed during a livestream service, to “The Slap” at the Oscars, and several Verzuz battles in between.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Howery shouts out the late great Bernie Mac at the end of his hour, and he shares quite a bit with his Chicago elder in terms of charm and likability and not shirking from the truth, no matter how they may look or how the audience may react.

Memorable Jokes: After dissing the media for dribbling out news about the Brooklyn pastor who got robbed during a livestream, Howery gets multiple laughs by doing the same, diving deeper down the rabbit hole to explore different aspects of the story.
As he did in his previous hour, Howery focuses in on Bone Thugs-n-Harmony odder choices for harmonies, this time centered around a series of recollections from watching Verzuz battles, complete with song, dance and other act-outs.
After wondering if he should bother talking about the Oscars slap, he decides to go for it. But he’s mostly wondering about how Chris Rock reacted (or failed to react) in the moment, as well as why Howery (who performed on the previous year’s Oscars, getting Glenn Close to do ‘Da Butt’ on live TV) would’ve handled the entire situation differently were he onstage. He also uses this moment to reflect on his own history with fights, friendly or not.
Speaking of which, a potential heckler doesn’t inspire crowd work so much as an extended tangent for Howery to reminisce and even fully act out scenes from the 1989 movie, Lean On Me, eventually even inspiring the audience to sing along with him.
And if you’ve ever wondered what an all-Black Benihana would be like, well, Howery has a story for you about that, too.
Our Take: Director Ali LeRoi (a Chicago native himself and co-creator of Chris Rock’s Everybody Hates Chris sitcom) gives us an added angle from which to view Howery sometimes from above and off to the side, offering a change of perspective that feels fresh.
LeRoi’s best choice with his crew, though, is in allowing the camera to linger on the comedian’s sheer enjoyment of the proceedings. That starts straight from the opening spotlight cue into a bouncy beat that brings the audience to their feet, with Howery applauding Crucial Conflict (“West Side’s finest” hip-hop group who opened for him, with a brief appearance over the end credits). When Howery says “I am happy as hell to be here,” we sincerely believe him.
Although he also laughs at many of his own jokes, Howery does so after allowing the crowd their chance to laugh it up first, and often.
Perhaps it’s because of all of those “amazing roles” he keeps booking, including one forthcoming film in which he’ll play Santa Claus! Perhaps it’s because Howery, like many comedians these days, is now going to therapy on a regular weekly basis. Either way, his changing circumstances have allowed him in his 40s to embrace where he’s at, as well as prepare for old age. Howery jokes Black men have only three options: 1) the old dude trying to act young still despite his aging face; 2) the cool guy; or 3) the guy with a jogging suit and braids. “You’ve got to figure out which old Black man you going to be.”
I first saw Lil Rel perform live in this same venue, The Chicago Theatre, back in 2010 when he opened for Cedric The Entertainer’s TBS special. A dozen years now, Howery has not only grown into a would-be King of Comedy in his own right, but also an entertainer who’s definitely ready to become the cool guy for years to come.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Rel just wants to have fun…oh, oh, Rel wants to have fun. Rel wants. Wants to have fun. Rel wants. Wants to have. Fun! I don’t know why that got stuck in my head, but now it’s stuck in yours. Enjoy!

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.