LOS ANGELES — The raunchy, star-studded salute to the late Bob Saget that took place at West Hollywood’s vaunted Comedy Store in January is reportedly being turned into a Netflix comedy special.
Comedians including Jeff Ross, Jim Carrey and Chris Rock, plus Saget’s friends John Stamos and John Mayer, gathered after the “Full House” veteran’s “fancy funeral” to send him off with jokes, musical performances and a roast.
Saget’s pal Mike Binder produced and filmed the show and, in a recent appearance on "Dystopia Tonight! With John Poveromo,” said that he packaged and sold it to the streaming giant, the home of Saget’s “Fuller House” reboot.
The writer-producer also said that there will be a screening of the special on the last night of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, which runs from April 28 to May 8, and the special will begin streaming in the first week of June.
But representatives for Netflix and Binder did not immediately respond Friday to the Los Angeles Times’ requests for confirmation or comment.
There’s a chance that Binder spoke too soon, making the special sound like a done deal before the ink is fully dry. The deal hasn’t officially closed yet, according to a person familiar with it who wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The person noted that it takes time to wrangle approval from so many big-name performers.
Famed roast-master Ross, who hosted the original event with Stamos, described the tribute as an “impromptu punk rock shiva” in a private room at the Comedy Store. Days later, Saget’s pals expanded their audience by moving to the venue’s main room. They sold a limited number of tickets to that show to benefit Saget’s beloved Scleroderma Research Foundation.
Binder said the gathering was remarkable because he reached out to several acts and “the right people” came, including Carrey, who often attends shows but doesn’t perform.
“Jim came out onstage with Jeff at the beginning and basically never left the whole night,” Binder said on the podcast. “And we filmed it, and I showed it to Netflix and they bought it as a special.”
Saget, 65, was found dead in January at an Orlando, Florida, hotel after performing on his “I Don’t Do Negative Comedy Tour.” The entertainer’s family confirmed in March that he died in his hotel room after “he accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep.” His family has since tried to prevent further death records from being released.
“Since Bob left this world mid-joke on a comedy tour, it only felt right to honor his memory in a place where the lights are low, the drinks flow freely, and the gut-punch of pain is overcome with belly laughs of love,” a representative for Stamos told the L.A. Times last month.
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