TJ Mack didn’t plan on becoming an international pop sensation. He wasn’t planned at all. The fictional wife guy, who looks like a living cartoon or maybe a human-skinned Kermit the Frog with his giant mouth and big buggy eyes, came to life the way most of writer-actor-comedian Brian Jordan Alvarez’s characters do: by messing around with a Snapchat filter that morphs his face, coming up with a voice for it, and riffing. Alvarez has an ear for accents, but TJ Mack’s voice is something wholly invented, his provenance mysterious. At first, all we knew was that he loved a good deal (hence the name), didn’t have a job, and had a fascinating relationship with his domineering but fiercely devoted wife, played by Alvarez in a wig, with a filter that kind of makes him look like a flesh-toned Grinch.
And then “Sitting†happened. For about a year, Alvarez had been making up songs as TJ Mack, singing to himself about simple, everyday things like lying in bed, eating chicken wings, jogging, and doing laundry. On September 10, Alvarez posted a 49-second song called “Sitting,†which is about, well, the joys of sitting down (the opposite of standing, of standing on your head, of running around). The original video got over 3 million views on TikTok, 2 million more on X, who knows how many on Instagram, and a full-length pop version, produced by New Zealand–born musician Josh Mac, garnered millions of views more.
In the months since, Alvarez has parlayed his “Sitting†success into hit after hit by TJ Mack: unlikely bangers like “Pickle in the Fridge,†“Chicas,†and “Dentist,†which are as good as the face belting them out is hilarious. These aren’t just musical-comedy good, they’re good-good. Like, they ended up topping people’s Spotify Wrapped, good. So it came as no surprise that a live TJ Mack concert and talkback, the first of its kind ever attempted by Alvarez, immediately sold out at this year’s Vulture Festival in Los Angeles last month. Fans turned out in hoards to see how Alvarez would pull it off, performing live on stage as TJ and other characters, using the face filters in real-time. The resulting show has to be seen to be believed (let’s just say, The Sphere could never), featuring six TJ Mack hits and the world premiere of a new single, “5’9,†so we’re releasing the official concert video. It’s a wonderful thing to watch.