People with wives, read no further. Theater people who don’t get cast, this one’s for you. Chris Fleming has graciously taken some time away from worrying about a TikTok bloodhound’s torturous existence to release a new comedy special called, simply, Hell. In the trailer for the hourlong special, which was filmed in March at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, Fleming does more than just stand-up: He sings, twists, dances, prances, poses, tries to pull off what I think is supposed to be a headstand, and crouches down low to do a Victorian-child voice. There are also glimpses of cutaway sketches, including one in which Fleming plays a guy with skinny little pipe-cleaner arms watching the special on his laptop with two AirPods in each prosthetic ear. And because you’d expect nothing less from the mother of such fearsome creatures as DePiglio, Mike Reynolds, and the emoji update Keith Unfortunate, you’d better believe there are awful little puppet guys that look like tentacled naked mole rats, referred to only as “unspeakable horrors.â€
Hell — or Fleming’s version of it, anyway — premieres on Peacock on Friday, August 18, and I’m not speaking hyperbolically for comedic effect when I say it can’t come fast enough.
