Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is Creating His Own Truman Show

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In just under a decade, Jerrod Carmichael has had a remarkably varied career. On the heels of his latest HBO special, we return to our conversation with Emmy-winning comedian.

At the top, we unpack the origin of his deeply personal series Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (6:30), his early days making his NBC sitcom (10:57), and why he decided to broadcast a deeply intimate conversation on the reality show (13:00). Then, he unpacks his view of the camera as a vessel for honesty (17:10), the response from audiences witnessing Jerrod ‘Truman Show’ himself (21:30), and his three-decade history of storytelling (34:15).

On the back-half, Carmichael describes the artists who inspired his work (43:00), a formative performance in his first HBO special Love at the Store (50:50), and the evolution of his comedy (57:37). To close, he reflects on the central truth he explores in this new series (59:30) and how he hopes this art will at long last set himself—and his family—free (1:08:30).

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Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected]. This conversation was recorded at Spotify Studios in Los Angeles.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Lemonada
0:02.0	Lemonada
0:04.0	This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Fregoso. Welcome to the show.
0:43.7	Today, one of my favorite talks with Emmy-winning comedian, Drod Carmichael.
0:56.2	We sat, I think, back in the spring of 2024, right after the premiere of that reality show he did on HBO called D'Rod Carmichael reality show.. Hopefully by now you've seen some of it or all of it. It was an eight-episode program that attempted to quote,
1:02.2	and this is his quote, Truman Show himself, in which we watched Carmichael working through
1:07.4	matters of love, sexuality, friendship, family, basically all the things
1:12.5	most people decide and choose to work out in private, away from cameras and definitely
1:19.8	away from an HBO audience.
1:22.7	But ever since Gerard left his NBC sitcom The Carmichael show, he's been kind of obsessed with how far he can push his comedy,
1:32.3	and by proxy, the people closest to him. And those boundaries have never been tested more than in his latest
1:40.8	stand-up special, Don't Be Gay. A title, I was really hoping to avoid saying,
1:46.9	especially during Pride, but if we can get past that, I think Gerard has, you'll find a stand-up act
1:52.9	that's vulnerable, crass, and achingly human. It's also, I should say, very funny. Here's a clip from the new special.
2:03.2	I'm learning what to do with anger in my relationship because I'm real sensitive and I get my
2:08.3	feelings hurt all the time. Sometimes my boyfriend says stuff in a way that lets me know he's
2:13.3	never been punched in a face before. You know what I mean?
2:18.2	Like, it's a tone that he uses.
2:20.5	Like, he's passive-aggressive sometimes,
2:22.2	and, like, passive-aggression is white violence, I learned.
2:29.8	We're in an open relationship, which was his idea.
2:33.9	My idea was to cheat and to live a secret life and let the lie weigh on my soul and come home and sit quietly in the driveway for a real long time, just like my dad.
	...

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