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Promotional art for Religion, Sex and a Few Things in Between
Cover image credit: Promotional image via HBO

Religion, Sex and a Few Things in Between

Rory Scovel

HBO Max · 2024 · 73 min

A surprisingly tight hour of physical comedy and absurd premises.

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

Rory Scovel has spent much of his stand-up career building a reputation as a loose, chaotic improviser who would rather riff with a crowd than deliver a polished hour. With Religion, Sex and a Few Things in Between, produced under Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco banner and filmed at the Goodale Theater in Minneapolis, Scovel channels that weirdness into his most focused, punchy set yet. He does not abandon his chaotic energy, but he directs it toward actual punchlines, taking on everything from the social etiquette of a gangbang to the biological reality of whale semen.

The title does not overpromise. Scovel dives straight into his South Carolina Bible Belt upbringing, analyzing the bizarre theatre of Christianity before shifting into the everyday absurdity of parenting an eight-year-old and living with a wife who has gone full-witch with low-hanging crystals. He slips into accents and occasionally breaks character to call timeouts on his own jokes, keeping the meta-commentary alive without letting it derail the momentum.

At this point in 2024, Scovel was more recognizable to mainstream audiences through acting roles in Apple’s Physical and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. For anyone used to his completely unscripted live chaos, this hour feels surprisingly traditional, but the physical commitment to obscene premises proves he has quietly sharpened his writing.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Receiving New Testament gospels and letters in the mail

    Reimagining biblical apostles Matthew and Peter as regular modern guys named Matt and Pete, acting out the nuisance of receiving their mailings.

  2. Speaking to God on mushrooms versus in church

    Quizzing the audience on whether he encountered more direct communication with God in church or while high on psilocybin mushrooms.

  3. The awkward logistics of group sex and threesomes

    Subverting erotic tropes by focusing on mundane social niceties, such as a host arranging a snack table or participants making small talk outside.

  4. Marine biology documentary showing workers collecting whale semen

    Delivering an absurdist dissertation on the volume of whale ejaculation, the size of a whale's anatomy, and the workers assigned to swap out collection buckets.

  5. COVID vaccine skepticism versus dining at Golden Corral

    Highlighting the irony of people refusing COVID vaccines over unknown ingredients while casually dining at all-you-can-eat buffets.

  6. Watching his prior Netflix special with his wife

    Recalling the realization that opening his previous special with anal sex jokes meant his wife's parents would ultimately watch it.

How it plays

Tone
Absurdist, irreverent, self-referential, and sharply comedic.
On stage
Hyper-self-aware, unpredictable, and playfully subversive, blending amiable Southern charm with fourth-wall-breaking absurdity.
Pace
Kaleidoscopic physical tempo, rapid-fire subject transitions, and seamless shifts in and out of character voices and accents.
About
Religion and spiritual beliefs, Sexuality and taboo intimacies, Psilocybin mushrooms, Parenting an eight-year-old child, COVID vaccines

What the critics said

Universally praised by critics as a tightly constructed, laugh-dense master class in absurdism, though noted by Decider as being notably more traditional in form than his prior freeform work.

In the room: Strong goodwill and abundant laughter in the Goodale Theater, despite Scovel's temporary post-production panic before crowd microphones were balanced into the sound mix.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: vulture.com, rottentomatoes.com, allmovie.com, decider.com, pastemagazine.com, vanyaland.com, en.wikipedia.org, hollywoodreporter.com, towncarolina.com, castro.fm.

Backstory

Executive produced by Conan O'Brien and Conaco. Represented a departure from Scovel's typical loose, ad-libbed style into a fully written and tightly structured hour.

Details

Released
Taped
Goodale Theater, Minneapolis
Runtime
73 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
Jeff Tomsic
Topics
Before
Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up for the First Time (2017)
After
Show Must Go On (2026)

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