John Early on Why He Covered Aaliyah on Comedy Album, Where He Thinks His 'Search Party' Character Is Now (Exclusive)
In an interview with PEOPLE, the actor/comedian opens up about his debut comedy album 'Now More Than Ever'
Michael Tyrone Delaney
John EarlyThroughout his career, John Early has cultivated a singular comedy persona that's teeming with neuroses, millennial anxiety and cringeworthy skits. While roles like the vain, compulsive liar Elliott Goss in the dramedy series Search Party and the high-strung Terry Goon in 2024's Stress Positions have flaunted his talent, it was his 2023 comedy special John Early: Now More Than Ever, which was a This Is Spinal Tap-esque faux rockumentary-meets-cabaret, that allowed him to showcase a more authentic side of himself through sketches and music.
Now, a year since its release date, the 36-year-old actor/comedian is releasing his debut comedy album of the same name on Friday, Sept. 13, an expanded version of his HBO comedy special. Backed by his band The Lemon Squares, Early brings his pop star swagger to covers of songs like Britney Spears' "Overprotected" and Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat."
"Working on this special and then subsequently working on this album has been the most surprisingly artistically profound experience of my career thus far," he says over Zoom from his apartment in Los Angeles.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Early opens up about the live comedy albums that inspired him, bringing back Vicky with a V to his act and who he dreams of working with in his career.
What made you want to blend music and comedy on stage?
A couple of reasons. One, is simply not wanting to be alone on stage. I would never do songs with just tracks up there alone. It's always about having a dynamic to explore on stage, having someone to flirt with. That's a huge part of it. Another part of it was just early on, when I was doing stand-up, there was just something funny to me about treating the stand-up I was doing, which always took place in tiny little dive bars — really small, ugly spaces — treating it like I was a pop star was very funny to me. I had a musical element that was in service of this kind of pop star energy in a very small, inappropriately small space. So I think that's where it started. Also, my live performance heroes are Sandra Bernhard and Bette Midler, and they're people who have always blended the two.
Courtesy of John Early
John EarlyWhich comedy albums influenced your live comedy project?
Well, I spent a lot of time in high school and college listening to Maria Bamford's albums in the car. My family always had the Andy Griffith comedy album actually playing at home. I wouldn't necessarily cite that as an influence, but just the idea of a live comedy performance that's recorded and hearing the audience was incredibly seductive to me at a young age. The Nichols and May comedy album was very big for me, but I think the bigger thing that went into this album was thinking more about live music. I listened to a lot of Isaac Hayes.
[My] live band, the Lemon Squares, we lean a little bit '70s soul, and Isaac Hayes also famously does these big extended versions of songs, of covers. He'll tease parts of the music in almost like a foreplay way. It's very erotic. He's very funny, very sexual, but he's also capable of really sublime music. There's a Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes live album that is incredible. That was the touchstone.
Why did you want to bring back your alter-ego from The Characters, Vicky with a V, for the live album?
Well, the main reason is because we had to cut her from the special. We shot that whole set for my HBO special, and we tried to pull off this whole magic trick where I ran backstage, they shaved my face, did full makeup [and] hair. I had Kate Berlant come into town and amp for me on stage for 30 minutes while I was changing. The special was already too long. It couldn't hold the Vicky set, so I wanted to include it on the album. And also, I love her. The audience loves her. They love her more than they love me. They play along with the whole illusion and scream her catchphrase back at her. I love doing Vicky because she is an antidote to all the millennials’ self-conscious, self-referencing, internet humor that I traffic in. It lets me get away from the trappings of being my age and where I'm from.
How much of Vicky is you versus a character?
Well, I think she's more aspirational. She's who I want to be. She is more warm and welcoming in a way that I am in my real life, that I don't let myself be on stage or something. She's a gracious Southern host [who] knows how to entertain and make people feel good, and that is something I'm capable of doing as a person that I don't necessarily include in my various personas. But she also has a kind of brassy confidence and an ability as a mom to be very sincere with her audience that I find aspirational. I know I'm talking about a character that I perform, but it's like a wish-fulfillment thing. I wish I could be as loud and proud as her.
Which comedians do you feel like are doing it best right now?
Well, I love Pat Regan. I think he's really, really brilliant. I love Richard Perez. I love, obviously, my little crew. I love Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak. Lizzy Cooperman, one of my all-time favorites. She has this act with her keyboard where she just slams her hands on the keys and screams at people. She's like Sam Kinison with a keyboard. I really love her.
When it came to the album, what made you want to cover Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat"?
I love that song. Aaliyah was very, very important to me as an adolescent and is still very important to me. I've had a lot of obsessions in my adolescence that have not lasted as long as Aaliyah. Her music is still the future to me. I don't think anyone's ever caught up with Aaliyah. "Rock the Boat" is a simple sexy premise, but I think there's something sonically so hypnotic, warm and special about it. We used to cover it live as a band for my live shows, so when we were thinking of, bonus songs for the album, we were like, ‘We’ve got to do ‘Rock the Boat.’” At the time we were doing it, we were re-getting into Burt Bacharach, and he had died around the time we were working on the special. So we were like, “We should do ‘Rock the Boat’ in a kind of Burt Bacharach way.” We got my dad to play trumpet on it. And even though the song is so sexual, the way we covered it is very sincere and soaring, and the key changes at the end I think are so beautiful.
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Did you worry about people not understanding the sincerity of it?
That's always the challenge. It's like I'm doing something cheeky. We flew to Nashville to record my dad and his best friend on the trumpets. We learned choreography for the music video. We really mean it. And yes, you might be laughing or squirming in the beginning because of the sexual content or the audacity of trying to cover the late, great Aaliyah, but by the end, hopefully you're giving over to the sincere effort and beauty of the song.
Were there any other comedians you were trying to emulate with this approach?
This is Sandra Bernhard covering Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).” If you look at Bette Midler's albums in the '70s, they're full of these covers, and there's no joke. She just has an incredible live band and backup singers. She just loves the music. The jokes come in the monologue she does in between the songs, but when she gets to the songs, they're just beautiful.
Of all the Britney Spears songs, why did you cover "Overprotected"?
I always felt like that one never got enough love. It was a bigger hit overseas, but it wasn't really a big deal here. And as a kid, I always felt like it was unjust. So I’ve always wanted to write that wrong and show people that it's actually a very good song. It’s one we did live a lot that went really well, and we would try bigger hits. We would do “Oops!...I Did It Again” or “(You Drive Me) Crazy.” Nothing ever hit as hard as “Overprotected.” Lyrically, it's become more dense with meaning since her conservatorship and what we know about her now. There's something very haunting about her making a song way before all this stuff [with] “Overprotected.”
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In terms of your career, who do you dream of collaborating with?
Proper filmmakers. I make a lot of my own work, and when I do movies and TV, it's often I'm called upon to be a clown. But I love movies, and I would love to work with some proper directors and not [do] just comedy stuff. I'm kind of obsessed with Steven Soderbergh — he made a movie called Let Them All Talk. I'm a huge fan of Deborah Eisenberg, the writer, and [Steven] loves Deborah. He made [that] movie based on this outline that she wrote.
It's been two years since the end of Search Party. What do you think of the ending now? Where would Elliott be?
Well, they would be living in their post-apocalyptic nightmare. Even in that environment, he would find a way to be visible. He would take over any sort of programming. If there was a radio or a TV show, he would try to be the face of it. Or, maybe he would try to start his own little sect, try to have followers within that world. What's so great about Elliott is he never learns his lesson. He never changes. Even after all he's put people through and after all that havoc they've wrought, he would still try to be the center of attention.
Are there any songs that you dream of covering that you didn't get the opportunity to on this project?
I wish we had covered “Don't Let Go” by En Vogue. My backup singers, Princess and Dominique in particular, they're in a Supremes cover band, and so we share a love of girl groups. And that song is also a big dramatic rock ballad, even though it's sung by an R&B girl group. It feels like a song by Meatloaf or Heart. I think we would kill it, so that's my dream.
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