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Promotional art for Career Suicide
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Career Suicide

Chris Gethard

HBO · 2017 · 89 min

A theatrical, highly personal comedy special about living with severe depression.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

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.

The set list

6 bits

  1. His complex relationship with his longtime psychiatrist Barb

    Serves as the structural framing device for the special, contrasting her helpful, grounded care with an earlier negligent doctor.

  2. Breaking the news of his suicidal ideation to his mother

    Recalls the painful emotional gravity of mourning the last moment in his mother's life where she could believe she had a 'normal kid.'

  3. Dispelling the myth of depression fueling artistic creativity

    Rallying against the romanticized 'sad clown' trope, arguing he would much rather be alive and unfunny than dead.

  4. A depressive episode in Weehawken, New Jersey

    Highlights calling Barb in crisis, only for her to tell him they would talk on Thursday, which unexpectedly grounded and saved him.

  5. Crashing a car on purpose

    Frankly details surviving a deliberate vehicle collision and the surreal, traumatic aftermath.

  6. Driving across the country and watching a freight train

    Finds unexpected solace and beauty in zooming out to realize his smallness and insignificance in the broader landscape.

How it plays

Tone
Hilarious, deeply sad, emotionally bracing, hopeful, and cathartic.
On stage
Vulnerable, honest, egoless, and deeply empathetic, delivering intensely personal material with genuine warmth and conversational authenticity akin to talking to an old friend.
Pace
Deliberate and unhurried; comfortable holding heavy pauses through serious disclosures before deftly puncturing tension with humor.
About
depression, suicide and suicidal ideation, alcoholism, psychiatry and therapy, mental illness stigma, the myth of the tortured artist

What the critics said

Unanimously praised by critics as a poignant, masterfully told, and cathartic special that transcends traditional standup comedy to deliver a powerful, authentic conversation about mental illness.

In the room: Forges an intimate, trusting bond with the crowd, who willingly follow him through heavy silences into cathartic collective laughter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: rottentomatoes.com, tribecafilm.com, hbomax.com, playbill.com, nytimes.com, vulture.com, theatlantic.com, npr.org, en.wikipedia.org, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Grounded in Gethard's personal lifelong struggles with depression, suicidal thoughts, and alcoholism, adapted after acclaimed runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Soho's Lynn Redgrave Theater.

Details

Released
Taped
Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Runtime
89 min
Where
HBO
Director
Kimberly Senior
Honors
NYT Critic's Pick
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents (2014)
After
Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese (2019)

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