This Hilarious, Bizarre Comedy Show is the Best Thing You’re Not Watching

You’ve probably heard of CollegeHumor, which served as a platform for comedians like Pete Holmes to show their humor chops on little web series like the Badman shorts. It was like Funny or Die: a place for up-and-coming funny people to show the world what they’re good at. These days, CollegeHumor is Dropout, and its streaming service (which you can find on YouTube) is devoted primarily to improvised comedy. It’s not a place where you really see movie stars, but it is a place where you find the brilliant Vic Michaelis, who is very much on their way up.

Michaelis (who recently had a pretty sizable role on Peacock’s Ponies) has been an asset on the comedy panel game show Game Changer, but their true contribution to Dropout is as the host of Very Important People, a reboot of the 2010 web series Hello, My Name Is…. It is one of the wackiest, hysterical things on the internet, and if you can get on its wavelength, there’s no turning back.

What Is Very Important People?

Very Important People involves one or two comedians sitting down with Michaelis, playing a fictionalized version of themself, for an interview. The catch is that the comedians aren’t sitting down as themselves, though, but rather a practical effects creation that ranges from a purple alien to a yellow furry son of Satan whose first mission is to kill Michaelis on behalf of their stepdaughter. Preferably with a shrimp turned into a tampon.

The guest is not aware of who they will be playing going in. In fact, they’re not even technically supposed to play anyone. They keep their eyes closed, get a ton of makeup and prosthetics put on, look in a mirror, and craft a character.

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What’s amazing is that the comedian has just a few minutes to craft their character. So, everything you’re seeing throughout these 15-to-30-minute episodes is improvised. There’s no outline, there’s no list of potential character details, it’s just a series of the most outlandish interviews you’ve seen since Crispin Glover nearly kicked David Letterman in the face back in 1987. Honestly, it’s weirder, and that’s saying something.

Helping keep the lightness that is provided by two skilled improvisers bouncing off one another is the fact that Michaelis is also not told about what character they’ll be interviewing. Even as the host of the show they have no idea who, or what, they’ll be interviewing. Michaelis is a professional but, even still, there’s the occasional break, and this show has some of the funniest breaks out there, because they’re fully warranted. If anything, it’s just astonishing that the duo or trio keep it together as often as they do.

The show’s version of Michaelis, always wearing the same brown suit, is also a pretty intriguing character. Every now and then we get little insights into their life—jury’s out on whether these details mirror Michaelis’ real life—including their divorce and desire to be taken seriously as a real journalist (and continued rejection when it comes to the latter). The highlight of this is Michaelis’ relationship with their stepdaughter, Biance, who works on the show and hired the aforementioned son of Satan to kill the host.

There are very few things that hold steady in every episode of Very Important People. It’s structured, but it’s not rigidly held to a structure. The guests are having fun, Michaelis is having fun, and we’re having fun by extension. The only thing that holds steady is Michaelis asking the guest what the meaning of life is. It’s usually a pretty horrifying answer, like the one delivered by a man who was recently turned into a (almost certainly psychotic) superhero. He mimes placing his hands around a throat and saying that the answer is “using your helpful hands.”

For those who want to get a taste of Very Important People, give the Instagram Reels a shot. You’ll know if it’s for you. Granted, as can be expected of an improv-based show, some episodes are better than others (though the practical effects are almost always jaw-dropping).

Highlights include “Denzel,” who is an alien living in Vic’s guest house without their knowledge, “Pig #2,” the second of the Three Little Pigs, “Zeke Aaron McKinly,” a fourth grader who’s been turned into rocks, and “Spencer,” the twice-mentioned yellow Hellion. Spencer is, in particular, an ingenious invention, and one of three examples that show Lisa Gilroy is the ultimate with this kind of spur-the-moment comedy.

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