Chris Gethard: Career Suicide NYC Reviews and Tickets

"While solo shows about tough times and garden-variety depression are not exactly rare flora on the theater scene, Mr. Gethard, who confesses he’s been depressive since he was a preteen, confronts with a bruising and sometimes hilarious frankness his longstanding urge to pull the plug on himself...Mr. Gethard’s delivery often belies — thank goodness — the dark waters he swims through...He definitely qualifies as significantly funny."
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"Depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies and graphic descriptions of the horrific side effects of psychotropic medications are not normally the stuff of which comedy shows are made...Fortunately for both him and us, he does it so entertainingly that the show's title, 'Chris Gethard: Career Suicide,' is unlikely to prove prophetic...That he manages to be simultaneously funny and moving while doing so is the key to the success of the show, sensitively directed by Kimberly Senior."
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"Gethard is part stand-up comic and part poignant storyteller, moving seamlessly between self-deprecating jokes and heart-wrenching moments...While suicide attempts, alcoholic blackouts, and graphic stories about pharmaceutical side effects don't seem like fodder for comedy, Gethard skillfully makes them funny without ever losing sight of the seriousness of his subject matter. He pulls this off partly because he's talking about his own life, but also because he is unflinchingly honest."
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"The short, bespectacled, seemingly serene Gethard proves to be an expert guide to his own personal Via Dolorosa, never playing his suffering for an easy laugh, yet never losing sight of the absurdity of his situation...It's a high-wire balancing act, and his director, Kimberly Senior, must share the credit for seeing that he never puts a foot wrong...'Career Suicide' becomes surprisingly moving as Gethard finally begins to find an equilibrium that allows him to flourish professionally."
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"Gethard comes across as incredibly genuine and sincere, in his desire both to tell his story and to provide comfort to others who have gone through what he has and continue to fight the good fight every day. Although not everyone will relate to references to medications and their side effects, Gethard does a service by opening up...He shows the pitfalls of remaining silent about one's struggles, and also how much better it can be through humor and hope."
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"This show packs comedy with pathos and tragedy with laughter in a masterful mixture...Gethard has a vibrant ear for telling description...This narrator is someone you grow quite fond of as the show proceeds...He’s ready for anything, in the moment, in control of the room...This show manages to be a sad, funny, full-throttle, honest, life-giving journey...Timing is everything, and Gethard is a master."
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"Gethard simply tells us the real absurd truth about himself, his longtime companion, Clinical Depression, and the rather unconventional, often scary dark, sometimes slightly scandalous, truly silly trip they have taken together...Director Kimberly Senior employs a raw method of storytelling that is without overly theatric distractions. Nothing feels contrived...Gethard is an excellent host who will make sure you have a good time."
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"It is a delight to spend any amount of time in his thrall. Yet I can’t help but marvel at how closely 'Career Suicide' hews to every stereotype of one-man shows, right down to Gethard reenacting conversations by taking a step to the side and turning his head. He’s an incredibly skilled improvisor, a thoughtful conversationalist and a wholly fearless dismantler of form...For all of 'Career Suicide’s' soul-plumbing honesty, there’s still a tangible barrier between performer and audience."
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"In a sense, the show is a freeform therapy session in which the audience serves as proxy therapist. It’s clear that there can be worse things than laughter as a way of confronting one’s demons. I wasn’t consistently on his comic wavelength but I appreciated even those moments when I didn’t howl along with everyone else...Although much of what he says is poignant, he maintains an upbeat charm, avoiding pathos by seeing everything as comic fodder."
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"'Career Suicide' is neither funny nor theatre. It is stand-up which would best be served at a comedy club...Hearing about bouts of depression, alcoholism, OCD and anxiety, treated by an incompetent therapist, who enables these illnesses, is not funny. It’s sad and a little unpleasant...The problem with this show is we are, in a strange way, asked to be Mr. Gethard’s enablers...Director Kimberly Senior doesn’t help the piece as she makes it seem interminably long."
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"'Career Suicide' is the live equivalent of a book you can’t put down. His stories are not just strung together end to end, they’re seamlessly choreographed...This is vulnerability at its barest, and his story is riveting, it’s compelling, and it’s also really, really funny...There are heart-wrenching moments in Chris’ stories that may bring you to tears, but be assured, the laughs are equally powerful."
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"The taboo-smashing honesty he brings to the stage may well save his audience...Never maudlin, he wrenches hilarity from snippets of his life...With a performer this prolific, it's easy to believe you know his story. 'Career Suicide' goes deeper, breaking open the places Gethard kept hidden for years by staying so frenetically busy that he wouldn't have to face needing help...Gethard gives us permission to bring our own demons into the light."
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"A revealing and personal account of living with depression. One of the great things about his show is that he gives us both a happy ending and no easy answers…With great wit and presence, he takes us through living with a depression that he first noticed when he was 11...Gethard makes it all add up to a gripping, beautiful hour. It’s amusing rather than hilarious, but its openness and its vividness leave you with a happy hum of connection."
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"Even by the standards of today’s mental-health-conscious comedy, Gethard’s show is intimate and explicit…Gethard’s openness and frankness are affecting, and he has built a comedy set around them with considerable skill and good humour…What is bleakly funny – and beautifully articulated by Gethard (with help from the Smiths) – is how broken we become, how far from dignity and capability we fall, when depression takes a grip."
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"Few manage to combine laughs, emotional heft and compelling stories in quite such a classy way as this quietly captivating American…'Career Suicide' is more than a collection of candidly funny stories from the dark moments of his life, leavened by larger-than-life personalities...Serious threads that run through the hour tie together in important messages that avoid the pitfall of mawkishness simply by being true, while adding to the rich and satisfying narrative structure."
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"A show that has near universal appeal…It’s a brutally earnest show…In less capable hands this could have been mawkish or solemn, but it’s tackled with enough humor and detached irony that it really works. It is funny and poignant in equal measures. Gethard isn’t a bombastic comedian, he is a considered storyteller…It’s a show that resonates with people and at times I could hear sniffling…It’s hilarious and moving, and a hour that many will really get a lot out of."
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"There can be few comedy shows which have quite nailed the minutiae of despair and the bottomless black holes which those affected find themselves in than Chris Gethard's ‘Career Suicide…Gethard has managed to find not just the funny in his life story, but the truly hilarious…It's unlikely that full-blown praise from critics will do much to ease his pain. But acclaim is certainly the least Gethard deserves for psychologically digging out a movingly funny debut hour."
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"The flyer promises depression, alcoholism and attempted suicide...As such, with grim scatological summaries of the side effects of certain medications, this won’t be for everyone. It is still a comedy show, however, and on that level it’s a success, with Gethard’s easy stage manner leavening the confessional moments, with entertaining anecdotes about some of his excessive behavior and his various attempts to address it."
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"Gethard manages to bring the audience to the edge of the seats with his unique vulnerability and has the whole audience waiting with bated breath before he delivers punchlines with an ease and swagger that immediately relieves the tension…Gethard manages to connect with the audience with his honest, direct and disarming manner…This show tackles a tough subject in a great way...'Career Suicide' is alarmingly dark and brilliantly funny in equal parts."
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"Gethard is a singularly skilled storyteller, his voice keeping the audience so rapt that even in the quieter points of the show there is nothing but complete attention. Then a punchline hits and the place explodes…This is the kind of show you wish you could keep to watch over and over…It’s clever and silly and everything you could want from stand-up…Every part of this show stands up well on its own and it finishes wonderfully...I can’t recommend this enough, go see this show."
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"Miss it and you’ll be missing out on one of the most vital, heartfelt and affecting hours at the Fringe this year…Each story is packed with an unsettling mix of horror and pathos…Compelling yet still discouraging, engaging yet emotionally fragile, Gethard is brutally honest about living at the mercy of mental illness...Stand-up comedians are sometimes called 'brave' for doing what they do – this is perhaps the only time that is true.”
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"It is hard-hitting, but stays subtle and honest throughout, without ever straying into the self-indulgent…The audience are onboard, patient and rewarded consistently for their devotion. It may not be entirely humour-driven but his material is delivered with the consummate ease you’d expect from an alumni of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade. Worth the admission for his description of his shrink alone, it deserves to be a deep and honest sleeper hit."
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