Notice me! Nobodies, now streaming

Update: Nobodies is no longer on Showmax. Find your next binge in the full series catalogue here.

Comedians Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf and Rachel Ramras play “themselves” in the comedy series Nobodies (2017-current, seasons 1 and 2 are now on Showmax). The trio created and co-wrote their show about the hustle of making it in comedy in Tinseltown’s cutthroat shark tank – whether in stand-up, film or television. While suffering the humiliation of being treated as a nobody, Hugh, Larry and Rachel are willing to play every trick and pull every string they have to get noticed, no matter how flimsy.

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Phone a friend

The real life Hugh, Larry and Rachel are more successful (and less desperate) than their onscreen versions and they have managed to pull strings to get their famous friends like Melissa McCarthy and her actor, director and producer husband Ben Falcone to not only co-produce the series, but also appear onscreen with them as loony versions of themselves. It helps that they’ve all hung around together over the past 20 years in the famous LA comedy troupe The Groundlings, whose members include the likes of Lisa Kudrow, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig. As a result, Nobodies is a true insider view of what it really takes to survive Hollywood’s comedy scene and the lengths that people go to to get ahead.

Pitch perfect

While working on the idea that eventually became Nobodies, Larry reveals that they really did try to work the “famous friends” angle during pitch meetings – and they really were trying to pitch a movie featuring pal Melissa McCarthy as a US president. “It was very much like the meeting in the pilot [episode of Nobodies] where they’d sort of be into the idea and they’d ask, ‘Well, what are you working on?’ and we’d say we were writing on a kid’s cartoon (The Loony Tunes) and then it was like the meeting was over. Rachel and I would over-compensate and just say, ‘We know Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy and Jim Rash and Cheryl Hines, so if you like them, you’ll like us!’” In real life though, their famous Groundlings have shown every sign of being thrilled to come on their friends’ show. “All these people we’ve known for 20 years who appear in the show… everyone was happy to come back and work on the show because it was like a family reunion,” says Rachel. In exchange, Rachel, Hugh and Larry created character versions of their friends who were vain, arrogant and out of touch – then bit their nails wondering whether they had crossed the line.

Going nowhere slowly

Nobodies draws heavily on the lives that Hugh, Larry and Rachel were living around five years back and watching those friends suddenly become famous around them. “We’re on the older side of it to be unknown and it’s like time is running out and we’re probably going to sabotage ourselves anyway, so all that just feels very real in the show,” says Hugh. “When people as incredibly unfamous as us play ourselves, it probably makes no difference. But psychologically… it’s interesting to show the warts-and-all sides to ourselves and heighten that and feel comfortable doing it,” he adds.

Non-tourage

While the names and faces are real and no detail has been spared to protect the innocent, when it comes to Hollywood itself, the trio have felt free to exaggerate. “Us making a satire or making fun of Hollywood… We haven’t been to any of those parties, we don’t know the executives, we don’t know any of that. We’re seeing it from the perspective of actual nobodies,” says Hugh. Larry agrees: “It’s sort of the opposite of Entourage [2004-2011; all 8 seasons can be streamed on Showmax here]. This is not glamour and ‘making deals.’ This is the Burbank Airport version, where we’re the butt of the jokes.”

The real laughs

The abusive relationship between the monstrous entertainment machine and the gambling-addict comedians who pull its lever hoping that it will pop out a bit of money for them is always good for a laugh. And if you enjoy Nobodies, there is so much more along that line that you can explore and enjoy on Showmax. Alone Together is a new cringe-worthy comedy series about two millennials trying to make it in Hollywood and are positively ghastly to one another (stream it here). And for a dose of reality, Showmax also exclusively features the bitingly funny documentary Dying Laughing, in which real-life comedians Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Bob Saget, Jamie Foxx and Sarah Silverman discuss the nitty gritty of what it takes to make a live audience laugh when, according to one comedian, “Bombing hurts more than going to your mother’s funeral.”

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