Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

I'm Doomed

Richard Lewis

HBO · 1990 · 52 min

A frantic, black-clad hour of anxiety, hypochondria, and bad therapy sessions.

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

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.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Broadway trip with family

    Lewis details the nightmare and troubles of attending a Broadway play with his family.

  2. Seventeen years of psychotherapy

    Lewis ponders the results of seventeen years of therapy, quipping that he now masturbates to less destructive women.

  3. Lunch with an idol / meeting De Niro

    Recounts meeting Robert De Niro and lunching with an idol, leading to spontaneous crowd work when he accidentally spittles.

  4. Adolescence and empty-house habits

    Reflects on his adolescent low self-esteem, asking who doesn't masturbate in every room when their family goes on vacation.

  5. Bowel issues

    Vents about his digestive and bowel difficulties without becoming lowest-common-denominator or scatological.

How it plays

Tone
Neurotic, confessional, dark, and self-deprecating.
On stage
Angst-ridden, intensely neurotic, and self-deprecating, roaming the stage and venting his personal woes.
Pace
Delivers rapid throwaway lines with fast comedic velocity.
About
family troubles, therapy, dating and relationships, sex, bowel issues, low self-esteem

What the critics said

Praised for Lewis's sharp stand-up, prestissimo throwaway lines, and relatable angst-ridden trauma dumps, though reviewers found the star-studded phone booth and therapy interstitials uneven.

In the room: Elicited spontaneous laughter during crowd interactions and stand-up anecdotes.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: letterboxd.com, thetvdb.plexapp.com, dfi.dk, bobmovies.org, movies.jrank.org, dvdtalk.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, encyclopedia.com.

Backstory

The final installment in a trilogy of specials dubbed 'Concerts From Hell - The Vintage Years', produced for HBO by Brillstein-Grey Entertainment.

Details

Released
Runtime
52 min
Where
HBO
Director
Bruce Gowers
Honors
CableACE Award nomination for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special
Topics

If you liked this