This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. Today we continue our series of some of our favorite interviews of the year,

with comic, actor, and writer, Gerard Carmichael. This year he won an Emmy for his HBO comedy special called Rothaniel.

What does that mean, right? We soon find out. The special is all about secrets. It starts like this.

I want to talk about uh... secrets.

Secrets. She'll whisper it, right? I carried a lot of secrets my whole life. I feel like I was birthed into them.

One of my biggest, one of my last held secrets is my name. My name is not Gerard. Welcome to the show everybody.

Carmichael delivers on that promise to reveal personal secrets about his real name, his family tree, and his sexual orientation.

It's a lot. Toward the end when he's interacting with the audience, his show starts looking like a hybrid of a comedy show and a therapy session.

Carmichael has done two other HBO comedy specials, love at the store directed by Spike Lee, and eight directed by Bo Burnham.

Carmichael was also the creator and star of the sitcom The Carmichael Show that ran on NBC for three seasons.

That show portrayed a fictional version of Carmichael's family.

Many episodes portray them disagreeing with each other on complicated and uncomfortable issues like,

is it still okay to enjoy Bill Cosby's comedy? Is it okay to have a gun in the house? How do you utilize a bad father?

Is it okay to take the morning after pill of a condom breaks? In Carmichael's HBO Max special Home Videos,

he returned home to Winston Salem, North Carolina, and film conversations with his real family members about sensitive family topics.

His special rathanyl, directed by Bo Burnham, was taped earlier this year at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City.

It's streaming on HBO Max. Our interview was recorded in April.

Gerard Carmichael, welcome back to Fresh Air. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show.

I love the new special. Congratulations, and you really were great on Saturday Night Live.

So congratulations on that, too.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

Oh, my pleasure. What changed in your life that you were willing and able to tell secrets now on stage?

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