mockumentary

Given everything that the brilliant John Early has done in his comedy career, Would It Kill You to Laugh?/555/Search Party, the prospect of Early doing an hour special should be a thing of the past. Early is as deeply funny as he is a boundary pusher and has been doing so for several years (even in bit parts such as he’s wild role as a compulsive liar on I Think You Should Leave).

Yet, Early won’t have had a solo hour comedy special until this Summer (you could count his episodes of Netflix’s The Characters as his own special, but it’s only 35 minutes) per HBO’s announcement of one this morning. It’s refreshing and surprising to hear that it’s something that HBO is ordering up rather than trying to write off for tax purposes.

Per Early’s particularly off-beat/alt/meta sensibilities, the special entitled Now More Than Ever won’t just be John standing on stage going through great bits. Variety reports that it’ll be done in the style of a gritty ’70s rockumentary, which makes it a de facto mockumentary. There will be cover songs, but, as one might expect, there will be interstitials that, maybe, might feel like a comedy version of Daisy Jones and The Six (though we’re sure there are many more layers to it than just that).

It’s hard to say what exactly Early has up his sleeve for us, but the mystery of what John is going to do, whichever of the multitudes of himself he chooses to show up as, is all part of what has been so enthralling about his comedy all this time. That’s why you should set a reminder for Jun. 17th when Now More Than Ever is set to premiere on HBO.