http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/arts/a-stand-up-talks-about-depression-he-hopes-youll-laugh.html 2016-10-11 21:49:54 A Stand-Up Talks About Depression. He Hopes You’ll Laugh. Chris Gethard’s new show, “Career Suicide,” which explores his anxiety as well as his public missteps, might seem like an odd choice for comedy. === The title of Chris Gethard’s new solo show, “I have to imagine I’m the only person in history who went from being the star of a sitcom to hosting a public access show in less than a year,” Mr. Gethard (pronounced GETH-erd), 36, said last month over lunch in Midtown Manhattan. “That represents, I would think from the outside, an extraordinary downfall by anyone’s traditional standards.” He was referring to his short-lived Comedy Central sitcom, “Big Lake,” from 2010. It was a high-pressure moment: The producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay took a chance on casting him (he had been a longtime improviser at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater) to replace Jon Heder, whom “Big Lake” was originally built around. An article in The It didn’t go well. “Big Lake” was That led him to create his chaotic, cultish talk show, “The Chris Gethard Show,” which revels in eccentricity, unpredictability and heartbreaking honesty. It ran for almost four years on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network public access channel before moving to the cable network Fusion, where it completed its second season in June. He has also kept up with acting, appearing recently in the film But lately his focus is back on the stage. In “Career Suicide,” which opens at the Lynn Redgrave Theater on Thursday, Mr. Gethard explores his struggles with depression, alcoholism and anxiety, his twisting career path, and how the ups and downs of one affected the other. After honing a version of it around New York, he took it to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer, where it was And he has a big name in his corner: The writer and director Judd Apatow is the show’s producer. Mr. Apatow offered his help after seeing an early version. “My note was very simple,” he said in a phone interview. “I said: ‘This is really great, but I have a lot of follow-up questions. You tell a story, but I could ask you 10 questions about that story, and I think the audience feels that way as well.’ And so I encouraged him to do talk-backs with audiences.” Mr. Gethard took that advice and found that audience members wanted to share their own stories about mental health. “It guided the jokes and the priorities of how I was building the show,” he said, using their input to tweak his material. “It also did really light a fire under me to step up and remember that there’s more to this than any other type of comedy I’ve done before.” Last week, the night before previews were to begin, Mr. Gethard was doing a tech rehearsal. With a month of performances before Edinburgh audiences under his belt, he had the rhythms down. The stage was edged with neutral-colored living room furniture — a nod to the suburban New Jersey of Mr. Gethard’s youth. The director, Kimberly Senior (“Disgraced”), said the idea was to bridge the gap between Mr. Gethard and the audience, and give the stage a setting without placing him on a formal set. It creates “such a comfort,” Mr. Gethard said. It also highlights the informality with which he has traditionally approached his fans. Phone-ins from viewers are a key part of In his dressing room afterward, Mr. Gethard was anxious. He was unsure about his backdrop, his preshow music and the prospect of performing the same monologue every night for two months. “I’m not used to having a whole team of lighting technicians and a person to tape a mike to my neck,” he said. “We’ll all learn if I’m ready together, or if the pressure makes me crumble before these eight weeks are up, and then there’ll be a sequel show about how this show itself put me in a mental hospital. We’ll see.”