“Agitated” could be used to describe a hefty portion of Linkin Park‘s music, but “agita”? Comedian and actor Avery Pearson and a starry cast of fellow funny people will reveal the connection in his comedy special Give It Up, Avery Pearson, which premieres Thursday (June 26) on the livestream platform VEEPS.
Recorded at the Dynasty Typewriter at The Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles and co-produced by Dr. Phil impersonator Adam Ray, the special will feature Pearson — whose work has been seen on Broadway, Saturday Night Live and the ESPY Awards — and his band performing his original songs with a lineup that includes Ray, Arden Myrin (The Righteous Gemstones), JR De Guzman and Beth Stelling (both have Netflix comedy specials), Luke Null (SNL), Josh Adam Meyers (Bill Burr’s Friends Who Kill), Scout Durwood (MTV’s Mary + Jane), Jeremiah Watkins (Cartoon Network’s DC Superhero Girls) and singer-songwriter Stevvi Alexander, who has performed on tour with Fleetwood Mac, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross, and appeared in the documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom. There are also special guest appearances by Iliza Shlesinger and “Roastmaster General” Jeffrey Ross, whose upcoming one-man show, Take a Banana for the Ride, which bows on Aug. 5 at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre, will include a song Pearson wrote for the production.
The set list includes “Monster Inside,” performed by Pearson and Watkins, which is about indigestion, although the agita is not caused by Linkin Park. A rep says the song is about heartburn that comes from “eating late night in your 40s, and is played in the rap-and-rock style of Linkin Park’s ‘In the End.’”
There’s also “I Am a Hyundai,” sung by Pearson, which, the rep explains, is about “identifying as a Porsche but accepting you’re a Hyundai.” “Sex Chair,” performed by Ray and Pearson, is a hard-rock anthem about the time Ray went to party and the host insisted on showing the comic his glow-in-the-dark sex chair. “Boys’ Night Out,” by Pearson, Null and De Guzman, takes a feminist perspective on guys at the club. “They’re not looking to have sex,” the rep says. “They’re just there to dance.” And “Fingerblasting Women,” by Pearson and Durwood, is an electronic banger about “the one thing in common between a straight guy and a lesbian,” according to the rep.
The special will be available on VEEPS in the United States and Canada for $12.99. All-access subscribers can watch for free.