Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel

I liked him a lot on Saturday night live. He was great.

I guess it makes sense that this special is in a jazz club, because it's not really standup. It's more like sitting in on someone's therapy session, and in that sense it kind of winds around like a jazz song and keeps hitting certain themes repeatedly.

There are some funny lines here and there as he tells the story of his family, the kind you use to joke away pain. It's not a hahahaha hilarious standup special, it's more like a one-man show.

Can a performer be quietly electric?

I believe so. Jerrod Carmichael is so real and raw here I was tempted, towards the end, to lace my fingers over my eyes and hold my breath in suspense.

In 'Rothaniel,' director Bo Burnham perfectly sets the mood with a long opening shot of Carmichael gradually coming into focus walking along the street under a light snow before entering a dim, hushed Blue Note.

The opening, the stage set, Carmichael's demeanor-all spoke of what was to come even before he opened with, "I want to talk about secrets."

For 57 minutes that felt like a lightning strike eternity, Carmichael spilled, interwoven with jokes, very funny commentary, amidst a two-way conversation with the crowd that made his bare intimacy much warmer than just stand-up meat. Long-held family secrets, personal secrets, real fear.

The fact that he may've fought tears toward the end (I cried briefly), to me, only burnishes the fact that Carmichael is funny as hell here. If you have ever been estranged from a parent, or hit with family secrets so deep they made you question who you are, you may just laugh even harder. I did.

But I don't see that as a bad thing.

It's been awhile since I've seen a new comedian who didn't think 'funny' was to tear others down.

Jerrod's humour comes from the pain/truth of his life. That's both funny and sad.

The throw away line that he could never bring someone home to meet his Mom, will stick with you. For you hope that it's not true; but feel for him because he believes it.

By the end, you will cheer for him to find happiness and acceptance.

It's a rare performance well worth your time.

Intimate, personal and challenges the heights and lenghts of your regular comedy special. Very emotionally raw, deeply funny and beautifully shot and edited. Carmichael shows a lot of vulnerability and does somethig I've never seen before - creates a rope between comedy and seriousness and constantly jumps from side to side.

This is a perfect display of the steps forward comedy is taking and how artists are loosing the fear of exposing their true human nature. Loved how caring the audience was, how they interacted with Jerrod and how open everyone seemed to be. Truly one of the best comedy shows I've watched and helped me regaining a little faith in humanity.

Jerrod Carmichael deserves all the love in the world and Bo Burnham proved again the value of his art and his craft.

I have watched all of his specials and was never impressed by any of them. It seemed to me his POV always had a mean streak in them, one that was unpleasant to watch. I decided to watch this one because of all the hype and was glad I did. His usual mean persona.was gone, replaced by an exposed and vulnerable person who was also funny and smart. I think all that meanness was the result of him hiding who he was. I'm glad he took the plunge and decided to finally tell the truth about himself. That is where his true funny will emerge. I expect great things from him now.