Career Suicide

Chris Gethard spent years building a cult following around public-access chaos and long-form phone calls with strangers, but this one-man show strips away the gimmicks to focus on the heavy stuff: his lifelong struggle with depression, alcoholism, and suicidal ideation. He approaches these topics not with self-pity, but with a detailed, matter-of-fact delivery that makes the darkest moments of his life feel absurdly normal. Gethard describes a suicide attempt in his early twenties where he decided not to hit the brakes after a car cut him off, rationalizing that a car crash would spare his parents the specific shame of a suicide. It is a grim premise, but he extracts real, uncomfortable humor from it, alongside stories of his teenage years spent trying to drown out his brain by listening to Morrissey, and his erratic, highly unprofessional therapist, Babs.\n\nTaped at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City, the 88-minute special was executive produced by Judd Apatow and released on HBO in May 2017. Gethard was at an interesting career crossroads at the time, balancing his cult variety series The Chris Gethard Show with acting roles on Broad City and in Mike Birbiglia’s improv film Don’t Think Twice. Kimberly Senior, who directed the original off-Broadway run, directed the televised version, opting for slow camera zooms and stark lighting changes that maintained the production’s theatrical roots. The television release received strong reviews, with critics appreciating how the adaptation preserved the stage show’s intimacy instead of forcing it into a standard stand-up format.