Jerrod Carmichael's Rothaniel is a masterful tightrope walk between different kinds of storytelling

The Hollywood Reporter

"The hour-long special, which premiered on HBO in early April, has already been written about considerably, with critics observing how it pushes stand-up into the realm of confession and functions as group therapy, or focusing on Carmichael’s brilliant use of silences, his coming out as gay and his engagement with the live audience," says Lovia Gyarkye. These pieces have rightly folded Carmichael into a new class of introspective, intimate stand-up specials, which include Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Bo Burnham’s Inside and even Pete Davidson’s Alive from New York. I agree with many of these readings. But watching Rothaniel for a second, and then third, time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Carmichael was doing something more: that this comedian, who has already released two stand-up specials, a short-lived sitcom and a pair of brief personal documentaries — material in which he gestures at his sexuality, explores family secrets, confronts his parents and demonstrates a desire to build rapport with the audience — was trying to really push himself and viewers. Buoyed by the freedom found within humor, Rothaniel struck me as a delicate movement between different forms of storytelling — a work that begins as confessional comedy, is organized like a memoir and is finally imbued with and sustained by the ecstatic energy of prayer." ALSO: Carmichael's choice of a red sweater evokes Eddie Murphy's Delirious.