Rothaniel

Jerrod Carmichael spends a significant portion of this hour sitting quietly on a stool, letting long, heavy silences stretch out until audience members feel compelled to call out and break them. It is less of a traditional stand-up set and more of a conversational reckoning. He starts with a secret about his own name—revealing that his first name is actually Rothaniel, a portmanteau of his grandfathers’ names that he spent years bribing yearbook editors to leave out. From there, he details a history of family secrets, eventually sharing the one he had spent his life keeping: that he is gay.

Filmed on a snowy night in February 2022 at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, the special was directed by Bo Burnham, who frames Carmichael in tight close-ups. At this point in his career, Carmichael had already created his own NBC sitcom and directed his debut feature film, but this project shifted his public persona entirely. He discusses the fallout of coming out to a religious family, noting how his mother views his sexuality as a sin, and how his father, who had been caught cheating, seemed relieved that his son’s news would redirect the family’s shame.

The special received widespread critical acclaim and won the 2022 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. Rather than building toward punchlines, Carmichael relies on a therapeutic back-and-forth with the small crowd, treating comedy as a space to finally speak without a script.