Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go’ On Max, There’s Nothing Hacky About This Comedian’s Debut Stand-Up Special

Just when you finished Season 3 of Hacks and wished you could see what happens next, HBO’s Max brings us the stand-up comedy debut hour from Hannah Einbinder. Turns out when she has the spotlight to herself, the woman who plays Ava is much more master than student.

HANNAH EINBINDER: EVERYTHING MUST GO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Einbinder has earned two Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Ava, the young comedy writer helping veteran Vegas comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) adapt to stay relevant, while Vance helps Ava find her own voice. And nobody would be surprised if Einbinder picks up her third Emmy nomination this summer for her work in the third season of Hacks that just wrapped on Max.

In real life, Einbinder, the 29-year-old daughter of original Not Ready For Primetime Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman, began to break through in the months before the pandemic, scoring a slot in the New Faces showcase at Just For Laughs (in the same class year as Shane Gillis; fun fact?!), which then led to her late-night stand-up TV debut in March 2020 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The material in the six-minute set that first earned her notice back then all shows up here in her first solo hour, filmed this April at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed by Sandy Honig (one of Adult Swim’s Three Busy Debras) and executive produced by Tim and Eric’s Abso Lutely Productions, you also shouldn’t be surprised for the creative flourishes in Einbinder’s debut special, which find her demonstrating why meditation doesn’t quite work for her, exploring her queerness, and explaining how climate change fits into a comedy special.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Einbinder’s magnetic stage presence gives off the same powerful comedic vibes as Jacqueline Novak brought in adapting her off-Broadway show (Get On Your Knees) to Netflix earlier this year.

Memorable Jokes: Like many comedians, Einbinder can joke about doing drugs, but she tends to talk about it in the past tense and in character, whether acting out a high higher power coming up with the concept of DMT as a drug-induced chemical explosion for a human being’s last moments on earth, re-enacting her incredulous boss at a coffee shop for daring to admonish Einbinder for showing up late to work, or explaining a bonus reason for why she intends to donate her body to science when she does die. Not only so they can study the effects of drugs on her physically,“but mostly if I’m being honest, cause I think those nerds deserve to see a 10 naked in the flesh, am I right?”

And then she’ll drop a whopper on us, reflecting on her ADHD diagnosis and the surging popularity of neurodivergence. “Here’s what I think: I think the gross overprescription of amphetamine-based stimulants to increase productivity under capitalism has tricked people into thinking that everyone has ADHD when really most people just hate their jobs and need to be high on drugs to do them.”

She employs bouncing bops and flashing lights to demonstrate and illustrate to us how her brain self-sabotages her attempts at meditation, and reveals her shock at her therapist’s suggestion after many years to try something a bit more unorthodox instead.

There’s an entire section in the middle that finds her connecting feminism to a solution to climate change to her embodying the Sun, the Moon, and somehow Mother Earth as if she were Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny?

But in the end, she brings us all back to her own reality, recounting stressful moments at high school and at her grandmother’s funeral, and what she learned from them, as well as how her bisexuality means she knows better than most comedians about the true differences between men and women, while feeling like outcasts among either gender.

Our Take: If you find yourself watching Einbinder’s performance and wondering: “Hannah: How come you hustle so hard?” she has a simple answer for you: Blame/credit her tween years as a competitive cheerleader, a psychologically demanding experience that left a physical toll on her. She’ll even put the mic to her knee to prove how old she sounds when she bends her legs.

Growing up with trans siblings also likely influenced and inspired her perseverance and confidence, all of which adds up to a very theatrical, intentional, polished hour, a showpiece for Einbinder’s varied talents. The moments in which she turns to the side of the stage to speak directly into another camera, so poised, evoking not so much Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s inner monologues in Fleabag, as much as Jon Stewart’s pivots to get serious or silly on The Daily Show.

But as her pre-pandemic, pre-Hacks performance on Colbert showed, she had this sensibility and stage presence all along.

She just now has more resources and a wider audience to she just what she’s capable of. Which is even more than we’ve seen her do on Hacks. No matter what happens to her character’s arc next season, this hour shows us why she’s deserving of the spotlight in her own right. A star is born, indeed.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Einbinder? More like spellbinding!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.