Shadow And Act RISING Award winner Lil Rel Howery’s first HBO stand-up special, Lil Rel Howery: Live in Crenshaw, debuts this weekend.
Written by Howery and directed by Jerrod Carmichael, the special, according to the network, “features hilarious impressions of a myriad of characters and stories drawn from Howery’s relatable personal experiences.”
Ahead of the premiere, we caught up with Howery to talk about the project, The Carmichael Show, the sketch comedy boom, the upcoming Black romantic drama The Photograph and more.
S&A: What do you think are some of the biggest themes that you dive into in your stand-up work?
LRH: More or less, family, you know? Like, I literally love talking about family experiences and real things that happen within that. I screened the special Thursday and one of the coolest things [was that] somebody walked up to me and said, “One of my homegirls just lost their mom recently and she hasn’t been able to hear the word death.” Like she wouldn’t let nobody say it around her or talk about it. And [Thursday], she was saying how she couldn’t stop laughing and that’s the first time even just dealing with that. I always say to people to that comedy is such a beautiful thing. I’ve always found comedy in the craziest situations. It can be the craziest thing that happened to me, but I will find the funny in it and translate it onto the stage, which is a blessing to me.
S&A: This is your first stand-up comedy special on HBO. What can we expect from it?
LRH: The setting is something [that] I don’t think has ever really been done…doing the gymnasium and shooting during the day. And we didn’t even think about it like that until me and Jerrod just did it. It wasn’t like we were trying to do something that hadn’t been done before. [We] really just did what we wanted do, and it ended up being like, “D**n, I don’t think anybody has done this before.”
S&A: We are in the midst of a sketch show boom — and a lot of them are from Black creatives. You’ve actually been in two of them, Sherman’s Showcase and HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. How do you think sketch shows factor into the way we tell our stories?
LRH: Sketch shows will always be important. I think we do need more sketch shows because I like the fact that you can literally do what you want. You literally can do whatever you want. You can do a sketch by the church, you can do a sketch about politics — you can do whatever you want. Nobody likes to laugh at themselves anymore and I think that’s what’s missing in comedy. Comedy is the best way to get out information and it doesn’t have to feel so heavy.
S&A: People still to do this day really miss The Carmichael Show. We know you still have the opportunity to work with Tiffany Haddish and Jerrod Carmichael quite frequently. Would you ever be down to revisit the show and what does it mean to have a show that was so beloved as a part of your legacy?
LRH: I haven’t asked him [Jerrod] about it recently because he felt a certain way about it. We couldn’t continue the show, but they didn’t really support it… they, the network, didn’t. As much people loved the show, we just weren’t supported by the network for real. For something that well-written, well-performed and well-cast…even to this day, it’s kind of weird to be honest with you because you think about what everybody ended up doing. First, we had legends on the cast in Loretta Devine and David Alan Grier. And then when you see what Amber [Stevens West] has done, what Tiffany has done, what I’ve done…like y’all [the network] had like an Easter egg. [You had] a golden Easter egg and didn’t even take care of it. I wouldn’t mind doing something like that again. I don’t care if its a reunion, an hour-long special…something. It would be fun.
S&A: You have several movies set for next year and one of them is The Photograph. It’s highly anticipated because we haven’t had a great, classic Black romance film in a while. What can you tell us about your role in the film and that experience?
LRH: It was so much fun. Issa [Rae] has a good way of creating these beautiful, Black environments to work in. From hair and makeup to everything.. everything feels like you are working with your cousin. You’re laughing the whole time. And Stella Meghie, she’s so brilliant as a director and as a writer. She did The Weekend too, which I love that movie [and] I hope people really check it out. It’s another beautiful, romantic Black movie. And this one [The Photograph] just looks good on screen. When you see these beautiful Black faces, it just looks gorgeous. In the movie, I play LaKeith [Stanfield]’s brother and I’m a successful Black man, I got a brownstone, I got a beautiful wife, I got beautiful chocolate babies [laughs]. It’s just beautifully real and when Stella called me, we talked for a while about rom-coms, dramatic stories and so much more. We talked forever. When she called me, I was like, “You don’t have to call me, I’m in!” It’s just a really beautiful story. I feel like it’s The Notebook-meets-Love Jones. It’s a lot of good movies next year that I’m a part of and I think to kick it off with The Photograph is the great and I hope people really go check it out.
READ MORE:
Lil Rel Howery’s First HBO Stand-Up Comedy Special Gets a Premiere Date
Lil Rel Howery To Headline His First HBO Stand-Up Comedy Special
Lil Rel Howery: Live in Crenshaw premieres Saturday, November 23 on HBO.
Photo: HBO