Pete Holmes has landed on the HBO schedule now with CRASHING and HBO has been promoting it pretty hard. Of course, it wants to stick another good comedy on its slate, right? Could this be the one? For HBO followers it started with HBO giving him a stand-up special. Back on 12.03.16 HBO debuted PETE HOLMES: FACES AND SOUNDS, an hour gig in which Holmes told his audience that he was always good at making faces and sounds so he might as well have put it all to good use, thus his stand-up routine was born.
His set includes rifts on sleep and nightmares; unexpected moments of comedy while traveling; quirks of the English language; how Brits deal with awkward situations; why he wears a specific T-shirt while flying and the fundamentally weird aspects of sex, porn and strip clubs. The special can be seen on HBONow/Go, but here is a clip:
Judd Apatow, a producer with GIRLS, was credited as a producer for the special and has now has assisted Holmes in creating CRASHING, the half-hour comedy airing Sunday nights at 10:30pm. We had reported back on 09.17.15 that the series was in the offing, then on 01.22.16 we announced it was picked up as a series and on 11.18.16 we stated its premiere date. For a quick crash course on CRASHING check those links and/or check out the following:
So there you go. He is a comic and he thought he had it good until his wife fucked that up. He got out of that and into the homes of comedic friends crashing on their couches until he figures out what is next for him on that happy road through life. Along the way he will link up with all sorts of talents in the comedic craft, including T. J. Miller and Sarah Silverman. What this show is not, however, is just an opportunity for a rotating cast of stand-ups to bounce witty banter back and forth as Pete mooches on friend after friend. I mean, you hope for real character development, right? Through Pete we get what life is like for a struggling stand-up comic, but he is a comic who is not just struggling with work, but with life & relationships. Hopefully, we will see how he turns it all around and uses the absurdities and cruelties of life and makes light of it all in his routine; after all that is what comics do.
In a way, especially with Apatow as an executive producer, you can think of CRASHING as an evolvement from GIRLS. The Lena Dunham series, now in its final season, offered us girlfriends in their 20’s forming their relationships and choosing their life pursuits like home and work. Pete Holmes’ now gives us a male’s perspective from the 30’s crowd. We see that what he has established is crashing down around him and hopefully sees what he needs to do to rebound from that all neatly tucked into the world of stand-up. Hey, a weak analogy perhaps, but I can see it.
Starring Pete Holmes and executive produced by Holmes and Judd Apatow, the comedy series CRASHING draws on Holmes’ own experiences as a comedian, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the unpredictable world of stand-up comedy. Apatow also directs the first and eighth episode of the series. Also featured are Lauren Lapkus (HBO’s ANIMALS.) as Pete’s wife, Jessica, and George Basil (Flaked) as Leif, Jessica’s lover.
So, I’ll ask again. Pete Holmes is CRASHING. Are you joining him?
