‘Don’t Be Gay’ Is the Next Chapter in the Evolution of Jerrod Carmichael

Jerrod Carmichael knows it’s time to log off, and yet…“it’s so fun,” he tells Vanity Fair. “It’s so fun that I can’t do it anymore.”

This time last year, Carmichael was often at the center of social media discourse thanks to his HBO docuseries, Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show. The series set the internet ablaze with its unflinching and often uncomfortable look at Carmichael’s life as a relatively newly out gay man navigating friendships, family, and a blossoming relationship. “I still check Twitter all the time. I check it every day,” he admits. “But I just can’t do it for me anymore.”

If that’s the case, Carmichael may want to go ahead and block his name right now. On Saturday, May 24, the Emmy-winning comedian and provocateur will be back in the spotlight with Don’t Be Gay, his hilarious and vulnerable fourth comedy special with HBO. Taped in one night in New York City and directed by Ari Katcher, Don’t Be Gay dives headfirst into Carmichael’s psyche fresh off his docuseries, which was also directed by Katcher.

“I’m in this generative phase where it’s like, I have a lot to talk about,” Carmichael says.

Don’t Be Gay also marks Carmichael’s first stand-up special since Rothaniel, the Bo Burnham–directed Emmy-winning comedy special where Carmichael officially came out of the closet. “I had been doing stand-up since Rothaniel, and it was this cathartic thing where I would go up with some immediate problem and work it out,” he tells Vanity Fair in an exclusive interview. But Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show itself “became the immediate issue after the show came out. Of course, I got the Google alerts for myself, and I’m checking Twitter, and it’s a rollercoaster.” His up-and-down relationship with the internet “is actually a more volatile relationship than I’ve had with my family,” he tells VF.

As documented in his reality show, that family includes Joe—Carmichael’s father, who had a second family—and Cynthia, his devout Christian mother who’s struggled with her son’s homosexuality. “The relationship has always been somewhat complicated,” he says. But post-docuseries, things with his parents are apparently looking up. “I think our relationship is… good,” Carmichael says, taking a moment to consider his response. “Every relationship—I mean this in a positive way— is as good as it can be.”

While they certainly come up, Don’t Be Gay isn’t really about Joe or Cynthia. It’s about Carmichael navigating his life as a affluent, famed, gay Black man, and all that entails. “The special is a lot of thoughts around how I’m seeing myself, because the reality show was that,” he says. “I started writing a lot of material about that—about how I see myself, about masculinity, how I see myself as a man.” Now, he’s somewhat anxiously awaiting the results. “I hope it’s funny. I hope you liked it,” he tells me. “I hope you laughed.”

“You know Scarpetta? I fell in love with it during COVID,” Carmichael says. His favorite dish at the tony Madison Avenue Italian restaurant is its classic spaghetti. “The secret is probably just butter,” he says. “But it is very simple, just noodles and sauce, and it’s good spaghetti.”

Good spaghetti—solid, satisfying—is precisely what Carmichael wanted Don’t Be Gay to be. Carmichael tested out material for “a year—a year and a half, even—shaping it into a show” at spots like the Comedy Cellar and the Laugh Factory, but also lesser known venues like Comedy Connection in Rhode Island and what he calls “one of the best clubs in the world,” Comedy on State in Madison, Wisconsin. Despite performing at venues all over the country, Carmichael insists he’s never been on an official tour. “It’s always so impulsive,” he says. “They would all just squeeze me in for these last-minute shows that we announced.”