Drew Michael
HBO · 2018 · 49 min
A tense stand-up experiment filmed in an empty dark void.
Stand-up typically relies on the oxygen of a crowded room, but Drew Michael throws out the audience, the stage, the microphone, and the immediate feedback of laughter. Instead, he speaks directly to the camera from a pitch-black, cavernous studio, treating the medium as a direct confessional rather than a communal celebration. It is a highly stylized, cinematic experiment that forces you to sit with the silence of his premises. At one point, the audio cuts out entirely and captions fill the screen, forcing the viewer to experience the world through the comic’s own hearing impairment.
Directed by Jerrod Carmichael, the 2018 HBO release came at a transitional point for Michael, who had recently wrapped up a stint writing for Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update. The hour weaves together his stage-style monologue with surreal, FaceTime-style video calls with a former partner, played by actress Suki Waterhouse. Michael tackles severe depression, masculinity, relationships, and contracting herpes, never softening his observations for a crowd that isn’t there to receive them. Critics praised the hour for its formal ambition, though the total absence of a crowd inevitably polarized viewers who expected a traditional stand-up show.
The set list
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Living with lifelong partial hearing loss and navigating the impatience of others.
Compares his frustration with people's impatience over his hearing impairment to his own impatience with his elderly grandmother, joking he would rather see her die than repeat himself.
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Telling jokes about suicide and dealing with reactions from 'suicide-adjacent' people.
Argues that suicidal people appreciate suicide jokes and that complaints typically stem from suicide-adjacent individuals, recalling an encounter where he told a grieving man that his late nephew would have loved the joke.
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Abandoning therapy after being diagnosed with commitment issues.
Riffs on leaving his therapist as soon as the therapist identified his commitment problems, likening it to finding drinking buddies at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
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Hypothetically dating his own mother.
Delivers an extended monologue arguing that dating would be simpler if he could just date his mother because he fits her exact type.
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The closer (spoiler). Show it
Suki Waterhouse confronting Drew Michael at the end of his monologue.
Waterhouse steps into the illuminated void to directly rebuke Michael's entire performance, calling it self-indulgent, unfunny, and reflective of his inability to engage in two-way intimacy.
How it plays
- Tone
- Dark, tense, stressful, introspective, and provocative.
- On stage
- Cerebral, neurotic, intense, and self-analytical.
- Pace
- Paces back and forth in an empty black void with rapid hand movements and tense momentum, uninterrupted by audience response.
- About
- intimacy and romantic relationships, suicide and comedic empathy, hearing impairment, the self-indulgence and mechanics of stand-up comedy
What the critics said
Regarded as one of the most polarizing and experimental comedy specials of 2018; critics praised its formal boldness, visual design, and deconstruction of stand-up conventions, while noting its cerebral, uncomfortable nature that prioritizes intellectual engagement over traditional laughs.
In the room: A completely silent, cavernous empty space devoid of a live audience, creating an eerie, tense, and claustrophobic atmosphere akin to performance art or a private confession.
Backstory
Filmed in 2018 during a broader wave of introspective, deconstructive comedy hours (such as Hannah Gadsby's Nanette), exploring themes of intimacy, masculinity, and the performative nature of comedy.
Details
- Released
- Runtime
- 49 min
- Where
- HBO
- Director
- Jerrod Carmichael
- Topics
- Before
- The Half Hour (2016)
- After
- Red Blue Green (2021)
More from Drew Michael
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Red Blue Green
HBO Max
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The Half Hour
Comedy Central
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