chris-gethard-presents
photo via @CGP

Chris Gethard returning to NYC Cable Access for new comedy series

Nearly a year after his truTV series got canceled, Chris Gethard is returning to TV. Specifically he’s returning to MNN, the NYC cable access network where The Chris Gethard Show found cult success. The new show is called Chris Gethard Presents and debuts June 26, but Chris told Vulture that he won’t actually host this new show, but will give a different comedian he loves an hour to play with each week:

Worst-case scenario, this becomes a playground for New York’s comics to have a platform to try out their ideas in an unfiltered way. I’d love it if people were to say, ‘You know, I have this idea that no one’s going to fund, or no network is going to buy, but I think it deserves to exist — let me take it to MNN,’” Gethard said on the project. “And best-case scenario, maybe we can catch some momentum and turn this into a place people go to find the next big thing … In a perfect world, the momentum of this thing will establish it as the place you go to see people doing what they really do with no interference — the place where we get to show off how badass and bonkers stuff gets on stages in this town.”

Chris tells Vulture that he’s already lined up seven comedians:

Carmen Christopher “is going to be the next Zach Galifianakis. He’s bold and confident as a performer, so weird and captivating to watch, and it’s nuts no one has made a bunch of money exploiting his talents in the mainstream yet.”

Christi Chiello: “You put her on any stage in NYC and she walks away with the room in the palm of her hand as well as every comic’s respect. She can go in and smoke people at a Roast Battle, go charm the New Yorker-reading crowd by putting on a solo show at Joe’s Pub, then go put on the boldest weirdest shit with the Bushwick scene, and everyone in all those corners of comedy walk away feeling like she stole the show. That’s a rare ability.”

Martin Urbano: “the perfect blend of crisp joke writing, stage persona, and troublemaker. He’s killed it on late night sets, he kills it locally, he sets up DIY tours, and he’s just one of these people you can’t take your eyes off of when he’s onstage.”

Rachel Pegram: “[I’ve watched her] grow over the years into someone who can walk into the most standard set-up punchline room and whip out rapid-fire characters that blow everyone away.”

Joe Rumrill: “a pure mix of Mitch Hedberg and Pee-wee Herman. I just reached out to my old dear friend Josh Sharp about this project and said, ‘I want this to be the place you come to do your most unapologetic, aggressive shit.'”

Riley Soloner: “always murdered on my show as Vacation Jason and he’s working on an idea for CGP so strange I can’t even type out a succinct description.”

Keith Haskel: “makes these beautiful comedy documentary life experiments that are sort of like a mix of Tom Green’s antics and Conan’s remote pieces.”

Read Chris’ full, much longer note on the new series at Vulture, and watch a video preview for Chris Gethard Presents below.