Neal Brennan Is Ready to Boost His Comedy 'Reputation' in New Netflix Special 'Crazy Good': See the Trailer (Exclusive)
Speaking to PEOPLE about the title of his latest standup comedy special, Brennan says: "It ends up being a bit of a self-contained review ideally. But that is the point of all of this stuff — there's a real upside to craziness"
Comedian Neal Brennan is ready to cement his status as one of the comedy world greats.
With two Netflix original comedy specials already under his belt, Brennan is set to return to the streamer for his third special, Crazy Good, premiering April 9.
Filmed at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, California, Crazy Good sees Brennan cracking jokes about everything from mental health and the absurdity of human tendencies, to crypto and millionaire mindsets.
"This one had kind of been developing while I was doing Blocks," Brennan, 50, tells PEOPLE, referencing his last Netflix comedy special from 2022.
"Blocks is so emo and so self-caring and sort of navel-gazing. And like most people, I'm kind of split. I'm like, 'I don't know. Maybe it's effective or it might feel good, but I don't know if this is the best course,'" he explains. "I was just getting sick of feeling sorry for myself and everyone on earth kind of feeling sorry for themselves... but there's an upside to bad mental health. In fact, there's a massive upside to it. So, that's sort of where I was coming from."
"Despite whatever you want to call it, poor mental health or imperfect mental health, I kind of got through it and I ended up with a bunch of material that was sort of expressing that," he adds. "And then, also the idea of the other sort of wind that was blowing culturally was this idea that comedians are the moral backstop for the rest of society, which is like, 'Where'd you guys get that?'"
Brennan touches upon that idea in the trailer for his new 53-minute special, which PEOPLE can exclusively debut.
"Some of the greatest things to have ever happened on earth were created by psychopaths and drug addicts," he jokes in the trailer, later saying, "I want everyone to have great mental health, but not athletes. You know what I call an athlete with good mental health? An assistant coach is what I call them."
At another point in the trailer, Brennan jokes, "The sun is basically the cops for white people. Follows us around everywhere we go, f---ing with us 'cause of the color of our skin, killing our cousins for no reason, and then when I tell my Black friends that the sun killed my cousin, they're like, 'Well, what was he wearing?'"
Not only does Brennan star in Crazy Good, but he also directed it and serves as an executive producer alongside Mike Bertolina, Bill Burr, and Al Madrigal of All Things Comedy.
Speaking to PEOPLE about naming the special, Brennan points out its ties to the topic of mental health, as well as the topics he discusses in his standup routine.
"It's basically that. It ends up being a bit of a self-contained review ideally," he explains. "But that is the point of all of this stuff — there's a real upside to craziness."
"When people go, 'Is Michael Jordan a good husband?' I don't know. I'm never going to marry him. I don't care. I need him to be a great athlete. I need him to run. I need him to be a maniac. That's his job," he adds. "Or an 'everything marriage,' where my husband or my wife has to be my best friend, and my confidant, and my clergy person, and all that stuff. Just have them be a few things! They can't be everything... just focus on the thing they're good at."
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With that in mind, Brennan hopes fans walk away thinking exactly that about his comedy special.
"The thing I always want is just people to think I'm great at comedy. All the sort of stagecraft and blocks and green lights and stuff. That's great. And I meant it," he says, referring to the stage details that were a part of Blocks and his 2017 Netflix special 3 Mics.
"But now... what's left is, ideally, original, great jokes," he notes. "And I also would like people who are tied into the mental health portion of it to know you know you can get past it, meaning I'm healed and the way I healed was insane. But I am healed largely or more, I'm better off mentally than I've ever been. And I hope to give people some optimism that you don't have to get stuck."
As for his future aspirations, Brennan has one big professional goal — and another personal (and PEOPLE-approved!) goal — slated for the coming months.
"I would just like to be a more successful standup," Brennan says. "I mean, I'm already pretty successful, so I guess bigger venues maybe? The job of comedian is an incredible job, and I didn't start it to stop it ... And so, hopefully, I can just stay around or get better and get a little more popular and get a little more reputation for it."
"I'd like to not be underrated anymore — and I know that's a compliment — but it's like, well, no. How do I just get rated? How do I get regular rated?" he jokes. "There are times I'm like, 'Shouldn't I be more popular?' But it's none of my business. I just have to keep my head down and keep doing it."
"But again, I'm also incredibly grateful, and it's the coolest job in the world. I really believe that. It's an incredibly rare category, and I'm very lucky to be even be on Netflix. I'm lucky to have fans," Brennan continues. "And I'm lucky to have people that are willing to interview me for PEOPLE Magazine."
"Next stop, Sexiest Man Alive!" he quips.
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Neal Brennan: Crazy Good premieres globally on Netflix on Tuesday, April 9.
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