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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for Everything Must Go
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Everything Must Go

Hannah Einbinder

HBO Max · 2024 · 55 min

A highly theatrical, character-driven hour from the Hacks co-star.

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.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Film Noir origin story

    Adopts a husky-toned TCM noir monologue under blue lighting to detail her birth to an older, breadwinning mother.

  2. Botanical sexism and male-only trees

    Cites a Scientific American article to explain how urban planting of male trees causes severe pollen allergies, connecting it to toxic masculinity.

  3. ADHD, meditation, and capitalism

    Argues that amphetamine overprescription tricks people into thinking everyone has ADHD due to hating their jobs under capitalism, while using flashing lights and sounds to show how her brain resists meditation.

  4. Competitive cheerleading past

    Details the psychological demands and physical toll of teenage competitive cheerleading, putting the microphone to her knee to demonstrate its sound.

  5. Grandmother's funeral

    Recounts divine intervention and stressful formative moments during her grandmother's funeral to reflect on life and loss.

How it plays

Tone
Warm, absurd, intelligent, irreverent, and theatrical.
On stage
Theatrical, poised, silly self-seriousness, blending acting chops with dramatic pauses, character work, and flirtatious flourishes alert to the camera.
Pace
Physical on stage, gliding with a self-assured cadence, featuring long-winded dense setups, deliberate pauses, and high physicality.
About
climate change, impermanence of life, bisexuality and queer identity, ADHD and neurodivergence under capitalism, botanical sexism and allergies, competitive cheerleading

What the critics said

Praised as an inventive, theatrical, and polished debut special that proves Einbinder is a distinct, formidable stand-up comic in her own right beyond her acting work.

In the room: Rapt and engaged, though the special leans heavily on intimate camera work that occasionally isolates her from the audience.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: hollywoodreporter.com, tribecafilm.com, decider.com, imdb.com, nytimes.com, latimes.com, pastemagazine.com, en.wikipedia.org, thewrap.com, ew.com.

Backstory

Filmed in April 2024 as Hacks concluded its third season; Einbinder explores her personal background as the daughter of Laraine Newman, her bisexuality, ADHD diagnosis, stoner adolescence, and teenage years as a competitive cheerleader.

Details

Released
Taped
El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles
Runtime
55 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
Sandy Honig
Honors
Screened at the 2024 Tribeca Festival
Topics

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