Former ‘SNL’ comedian Chris Redd attacked outside the Comedy Cellar last night as he sat down to watch his new HBO standup special, “All Day” (via Time).
Redd opened up about some of the personal and professional difficulties he faced earlier this year, including a suicide attempt and the tragic passing of his former colleague, comedian Chris Hardwick.
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“This is a dark, dark time for me,” he said, explaining that the suicide attempt was not a reflection of his mental health, but the consequences of “the pressure cooker of life.”
“I had a lot of people who tried to help me out and I kept falling for it,” Redd said. “It got to the point where all these friends wanted to help me so I stopped caring so much and let them save my life.”
Instead, he decided to take his own, much more radical, way out.
“[For me,] it was like, you know, ‘fuck fucking it,’” he said. “I just decided to do whatever I need to do to get out of this mess that I’m in.”
Redd said that if he had not taken his own life, the suicide attempt would have been “a good thing,” but the idea of not living up to his end-of-year resolution to be at least 10 times more prolific in his career than he was when he was 23 gave him the resolve to carry out his plan.
Redd’s HBO special, “All Day,” is part of his new standup series, “The Ride Along,” which premieres Friday, June 28 and will run weekly through August 21.
In addition to revealing the real-life struggles he went through while struggling with substance abuse and depression, Redd revealed an incident that happened when he was 15 and his father was still living: his dad decided to drive his brother and him to a wrestling match in Iowa, but turned their car around at a red light in front of a McDonald’s after the wrestling match because he didn’t want his son — a budding pro wrestler — to get into more trouble.
“At 15, I was already getting laid off from