The comedy community received tragic news on Friday when The Blast confirmed that comedian Brody Stevens has passed away from a reported suicide. Over the course of his prolific career, Stevens, 48, appeared on Comedy Central’s The Half Hour, Adventure Time, Tosh.0, Childrens Hospital, Fox NFL Sunday, Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Burn with Jeff Ross, Kroll Show, @midnight, Chelsea Lately, Conan, Premium Blend, and dozens of other shows. His movie appearances include, as he described, “Hangover: In it. Hangover 2: In it. Funny People: cut out of it.”
Stevens was an unpredictable force of nature able to command a packed club, bar show, or, most difficult of all, a TV warm-up audience, with weirdly whimsical ease. In 2011 Stevens produced and starred in a documentary series about himself for HBO and Comedy Central entitled Brody Stevens: Enjoy It! Equally a comedy show and an examination of what it’s like to be an artist struggling with mental health, Enjoy It is a powerful program. Watching it now, in light of his passing, makes it difficult to enjoy.
Brody Stevens was also a star athlete in high school and college, attending Arizona State on a Division 1 baseball scholarship. Even after an elbow injury ended his baseball career Stevens’ love of the game was an iconic part of his personality. On Enjoy It Stevens visited Fenway Park to soak in the energy before filming his Comedy Central Half Hour.
His peers have taken to Twitter to share their memories and eulogies.
If you are depressed or feeling suicidal please please please please please reach out to ANYONE. I never get to see Brody Stevens again I can’t stand this. #RIPBrodyStevens#818ForLifepic.twitter.com/n1jQhXdOIz
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 22, 2019
On his old website, Brody Stevens had a pic of him and @davidcrosss with the caption “2 Generations of Laughter” and I don’t know why but that always laid me out. I think Cross is maybe 5 years older than him.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 22, 2019
I love you so much Brody Stevens. Nobody has been nicer in comedy than you. My heart is shattered. pic.twitter.com/sOl9PLpxsd
— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) February 22, 2019
Well this one hurts. Brody Stevens was what a comic is. Very sad and I don’t understand. #RIPBrodyStevens#818ForLife
— eddie pepitone (@eddiepepitone) February 22, 2019
Brody Stevens was singular. Nobody else like him.
Always sweet and kind.
Always super hilarious.He said to me last year: “I heard there’s a gif of us fist-bumping. You know computers, link it to me!”.
I searched for it and here it is. #RipBrodyStevens #818 pic.twitter.com/hMGCMvoeD7
— Jonah Ray Rodrigues (@jonahray) February 22, 2019
#RIPBrodyStevens he was so funny and weird and vulnerable and wild and kind. Every time he was onstage it was an adventure. Here’s some comics talking about what made him so special. https://t.co/wbUNaZgJ2f
— nick kroll (@nickkroll) February 22, 2019
I spent a month touring around with Brody Stevens. Never met anyone like him. A true original. Really sad news. Gonna miss watching him shock and awe his way through comedy, telling people where their area codes were from and air drumming with complete abandon. RIP. You got it!
— Adam Cayton-Holland (@CaytonHolland) February 22, 2019
Brody Stevens was unbelievable. So funny, unique, special, inspiring.
— Jake Weisman (@weismanjake) February 22, 2019
Comedians as a collective are hard to make laugh. But Brody Stevens grabbed our attention at every show. No one will make anyone laugh by reading off IMDb credits like he can. RIP to a legend.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) February 22, 2019
So so so brokenhearted about the death of @BrodyismeFriend. A pal and one of the most completely unique comics of all time. At the top of my list. His show was a breathtaking whirlwind unlike anything I’ve ever seen before…what “improv” should be, but never is. A true GREAT.
— Neil Hamburger (@NeilHamburger) February 22, 2019
RIP to truly one of the best stand-ups, Steven Brody Stevens. You might not know of Brody, but he likely had an influence on your favorite comic. This was my favorite thing he did: https://t.co/2Ffiq3fD12
— Nikki Glaser (@NikkiGlaser) February 22, 2019
Brody Stevens was a force of fucking nature. This is so fucking stupid.
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) February 22, 2019
I think the sign of a beloved comedian is how many people do an impression of them.
EVERYONE had a Brody Stevens impression.
— Jeff Wattenhofer (@jwattenhofer) February 22, 2019
Brody Stevens was obviously funny as fuck, but also super nice to green ass comics in a way that a lot of us jaded fucks forget to be.
He also loved walking everywhere
— The Dan (@danielleradford) February 22, 2019
Here’s Brody closing the last Comedy Bang Bang stand-up show back in 2012 with nothing but positive energy.
RIP Brody Stevens pic.twitter.com/qZNlkwemFF
— Kevin T. Porter (@KevinTPorter) February 22, 2019
Finally, here’s a story from John Roy, that sums up Stevens as a performer.
2. Industry crowds are notoriously bad anyway. They watch comedy all day and they’re numb to it. Also these people were here by force and it was a week night. Six amazing comics who you have heard of bombed hard one after the other…
— John Roy (@JohnRoycomic) February 22, 2019
4. Brody goes up to a mix of silence and perfunctory weak claps. He plants his feet, makes direct eye contact with the most bored looking agent in the front row. He starts fierce, “you think I’m intimidated by an industry crowd?”
Right to the guy he goes “I hip pocket YOU”
— John Roy (@JohnRoycomic) February 22, 2019
6. The comics upstairs are fidgeting now. So sure they had been that this was a cold room where laughter is impossible and there’s Brody downstairs absolutely KILLING. Everything they had said before was a comforting lie. And not only did Brody kill…
— John Roy (@JohnRoycomic) February 22, 2019
8. He gave that gift to every comic that came after him that night. That’s why he was such a master at warming up TV shows. He simply refused to accept that audience could not be made to laugh and he threw every thought and instinct he had at that problem until it was solved..
— John Roy (@JohnRoycomic) February 22, 2019
9. And after he had cracked it, it stayed solved until the show was over. He hit the funny bone like he was doing accupuncture. He was a true master. He will be greatly missed. /end
— John Roy (@JohnRoycomic) February 22, 2019
Rest in peace Brody Stevens. The 818 and all of comedy is mourning you.
John-Michael Bond is Paste’s assistant comedy editor. He’s on Twitter @BondJohnBond.