Everything Must Go

Hannah Einbinder starts her debut special with a smoky, noirish confession about her birth, bathed in a blue spotlight and backed by a jazz score. But she spends the rest of the hour actively dismantling any expectations of sitcom charm. Recorded at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, the hour leans hard into theatrical pacing, prolonged silences, and expressive physical comedy rather than a steady march of setup-punchline jokes.

Under the direction of Sandy Honig, the stage takes on a Lynchian mood that matches Einbinder’s eccentric energy. She moves through stories of high-school cheerleading, heavy weed use, and a surreal vision of her grandmother’s funeral. The centerpiece of the set is a ten-minute meltdown over climate change and urban planning. Einbinder explains why 1950s city planners only planted male trees, which do not produce fruit but drop massive amounts of pollen, before morphing into a furious, Marisa Tomei-inspired personification of Mother Earth. Having spent years in the spotlight for her role on Hacks, Einbinder used this debut to showcase her background in physical improv and alternative, character-driven comedy.