5 questions with 'Hospital Hour''s Rachel Kaly, Bob Odenkirk, and Chris Fleming

Writer/performer Kaly, director Fleming, and producer Odenkirk strike a darkly funny balance between the humorous and hellish in Kaly's solo comedy show.

Summary

• Hospital Hour is a solo comedy show about writer/perfomer Rachel Kaly's 300-plus hospital visits
• Kaly, director Chris Fleming, and producer Bob Odenkirk all have stand-up backgrounds
• The trio discuss their collaboration and how the show's blend of silly and serious has evolved, particularly for theatrical spaces
• Hospital Hour performs off Broadway at the Culture Club through November 23

Laughter is the best medicine, the saying goes. But you won't catch Rachel Kaly resorting to any such platitudes in her Off-Broadway solo comedy show Hospital Hour, directed by Chris Fleming and produced by Bob Odenkirk.

"Chris was really good at being like, 'Don't forget that you're a stand-up and this is a comedy show.' Sometimes when you're in a theatre, you have certain instincts," Kaly said, referring to a common perception of theatrical comedy as over-the-top and sentimental. "He was really good at keeping me honest about what I'm doing."

What is she doing on stage at the Culture Club, exactly? Speedrunning through the 300-plus hospital visits she's made in her life, not in search of catharsis or a cure for her self-described mental illness, but for the mere sake of laughter. It worked on Odenkirk, who saw the show in L.A. two years ago and was inspired to get involved. Kaly had already met Fleming doing stand-up at a bar ("I bombed, and then Rachel killed," the director said), and the rest is history.

It might seem an odd throuple if you only know Odenkirk from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. But before those shows earned him six Emmy nominations for drama, he trod L.A.'s stand-up scene and wrote for Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien, Ben Stiller (winning an Emmy), and Mr. Show with Bob and David, the sketch comedy series he created with David Cross. Kaly is most widely known for her stint on the sitcom Jury Duty, and Fleming made their name as a YouTube comic before picking up an Emmy nod for their stand-up writing.

Their overlapping but distinct careers, all three suggested, balance out Hospital Hour, especially as sold-out runs in London and Edinburgh put it more squarely on the line between comedy and theatre. Hours before the show's Off-Broadway opening night, the trio reflected on the show's evolution, their collaboration, and more with New York Theatre Guide.

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Rachel, some people may be surprised this is a comedy show by the description. How would you describe its comic style, and the blend of silly and serious?

Kaly: I'm really drawn to the absurd, and a lot of stuff that has happened in my life is pretty absurd. That's my point of view on it: This thing happened, but there's comedy to mine from it because that's just what life is about. I definitely have a darker sensibility, but ultimately I just want people to laugh. A lot of comedy I'm drawn to is surprising and honest, and this show has qualities of that, where you never know what you're going to hear next because you can't make up what I'm saying.

Bob, what was your first impression when you saw Hospital Hour?

Odenkirk: It made me laugh. It surprised me with where it went. It is about going to the hospital many, many times, but it's about Rachel's very unique life growing up in New York, her offbeat family. It's really well-scripted. There's jokes coming constantly. It's very character-based. You get to know her very quickly; you get to know her rhythm.

I used to do stand-up, and the time I did the most stand-up was early in this alternative scene in Los Angeles. Her comedy reminds me of Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Behrendt, Taylor Negron.

I did it a lot for a couple of important years in my life, so I related to it. It's my favorite because if the person doing it is genuinely funny, that's of course important, but also, it tends to be surprising, personal. It's not just corny and structured in a way you're used to. It takes you somewhere [...] and even though it [is] scripted and tight, Rachel makes it come alive every night, and she's very present every time she does it.

How have each of your comic backgrounds informed your approaches to this show, individually and collaboratively?

Kaly: I started doing stand-up when I was 9. Gotham Comedy Club has a kids' program I partook in for nine years, so I feel like I've always been drawn to stand-up. Doing stand-up while you're going through puberty lends itself to an honesty and vulnerability you can never shake after that because it's so humiliating.

Fleming: Your stand-up was kind of similar.

Kaly: Oh, yeah. It's like, "My mom did this crazy thing," and I'm still talking about that. I have a joke about how my mom would make me and my sibling wear big winter coats to McDonald's so we could steal plastic silverware without getting caught.

Fleming: And your delivery is very similar. Rachel came already cooked.

Kaly: And then Bob reminds me a lot that this is a written show. It's almost like a monologue. It's stand-up, but it's scripted in a way that there's a story in a way stand-up doesn't always have. And I just ultimately am a writer, first and foremost.

Fleming: We never wanted the theatricality to feel cute, but just add enough to make it feel like it belonged in the theatre. Rachel's never soliciting sympathy in any way.

Are there any memorable audience reactions from previous productions of Hospital Hour?

Kaly: Sometimes people will come up to me, grab my shoulder, and be like, "If you need someone to talk to, here's my number." It's usually an older guy, and it's not perverted; it's perhaps paternal or clinical. And then one time I had this younger guy come up to me after the show, and he was like, "Can we go for a walk?"

This is why I have a show, by the way. I let things happen to me sometimes. He basically wanted me to diagnose his ex because he had such a difficult relationship with her. I found that to be really an interesting experience.

I was like, "I think she has maybe a bipolar or personality disorder." And he was like, "Yeah, I could have told you that." Okay, so what are we doing here? But also, you're a guy who's taking me on a half-hour walk after I just did a show. You're to blame, too, presumably.

What do theatres and hospitals have in common?

Kaly: They're cold.

Fleming: Sound check in a theatre is very similar to being in a hospital.

Odenkirk: It's a blank space. It's not friendly. But at night it is, when they turn off the work lights. A hospital's never friendly, but we've talked about how sometimes the hospital is a great place to be.

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Photos 2-3 credit: Rachel Kaly in Hospital Hour off Broadway. (Photos by Emilio Madrid)
Photo 4 credit: Photo credit: Bob Odenkirk, Rachel Kaly, and Chris Fleming. (Photo by Andrew Patino/Regular People)