I'm Doomed

Richard Lewis steps onto the stage dressed entirely in black, plunging immediately into an anxious marathon of self-loathing and hypochondria. He paces incessantly and runs his hands through his hair as he spirals through a stream of consciousness rant. The material turns everyday paranoia into elaborate complaints, recounting a childhood paper route where he only delivered to therapists and developed a lingering terror of a customer’s giant box turtle. Filmed before a Chicago audience, I’m Doomed premiered on HBO in 1990 during a surge of mainstream visibility for the comic, right as he starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis on the ABC sitcom Anything But Love. The act itself stays completely focused on misery. He spins through bad dates, difficult therapy sessions, and his mother’s emotional distance, frequently leaning on his favored construction of describing things as being ‘from hell’. The broadcast earned him a CableACE Award nomination for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special.