Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Handout
Before Leo Reich takes the stage at the top of his new HBO special Literally, Who Cares?! we hear him introduce himself as the “youngest comedian ever.” As he explains in this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, “I try to really lean into a kind of self-appointed voice-of-a-generation or young genius vibe,” before making sure to add, “in an ironic way.”
That upending of expectations around the attitudes of a queer Gen Z comedian—or “rug-pulling,” as he puts it—are at the heart of Reich’s excellent new show, which first ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022 and premieres on HBO and Max this Saturday, Dec. 16. Reich talks about writing the show while he was still living at home with his parents during the pandemic, why he prefers the connection of a live audience to being a slave to the TikTok algorithm, and the ultimate laziness of railing against “cancel culture.”
When Reich appears on Zoom from London, the magenta eyeshadow he sports on stage is conspicuously missing (as are, presumably, the short shorts). “It is me,” he says of the self-obsessed performer he embodies in the show. “I wouldn’t say that I’m doing character comedy. I would say I’m doing stand-up. But at the same time it’s obviously a manic exaggeration of my most insane thoughts and feelings. So I would hope that the experience of meeting me is really different to the experience of watching me on stage.”