A comedian on the threshold of doing an hour special can take a look at the landscape of comedy today and very easily get the notion of doing something, anything different, since the majority of comedy specials are still predominantly comprised of a single person on stage talking for an hour in front of a full theater or club. Then, comedians like John Early opt to let their imagination run wild and give us a rollicking pastiche of all facets of themselves as Early did with Now More Than Ever.

On paper, there are several different levels to Early’s hour on Max (notably referenced as HBO Max in this special, which will be a fun deep cut reference the more time that passes). Early couches his genuine, painstakingly crafted stand-up as interstitials within a sort of rock-doc/concert film for his fictional band The Lemon Squares (though they’re pretty damn fun as a cover band). So, that’s technically two sides of Now More Than Ever.

Then, there’s the meta/mockumentary element where John has the sort of chaotic fun that he has done so long with his long time comedy collaborator, Kate Berlant, showing comedic discord behind the scenes with The Lemon Squares. On top of those three layers, there seems to be final topping of Early being satirically self-aware of himself, his material, the concept of a comedy special, etc. Early doesn’t recuse himself from “being part of the problem” when calling it out in jokes and takes a mischievous pleasure in shouting out his parents out in the crowd with a spotlight and dragging them at the same time. In some schools of comedy thought, there might be “too many hats on hats” here, but Early’s magnetism, shrewd observations, and impeccable Britney voice does really ties everything together.

Suffice it to say that there’s a lot that’s packed into Now More Than Ever, but it all meshes together in a dreamlike fashion, blurring between varying levels of verisimilitude of John, but resulting in a special that’s a hilariously delightful greeting card to waking up in the awkwardness-fueled, tech-obsessed, new-new lost generation of the 2020s. It might be the choice special to watch on July 4th weekend.

John Early: Now More Than Ever is now streaming on Max, formerly HBO Max.