Comedian Zack Fox To Debut A Wild Live Variety Show With Guest Phoebe Bridgers

Live television is electric. Even when it’s bad, like your average episode of Saturday Night Live or VICELAND’s mostly disastrous foray into live TV, VICE Live, there’s still something compelling about the chaotic, anything-can-happen energy. The spirit of a performance teetering slightly off the rails is part of what’s made live streaming platforms like Twitch so interesting and popular; there’s a little bit of danger baked into even the most innocuous feed. 

IHEARTCOMIX and Beats by Dr. Dre appear to be courting a bit of this danger by teaming with Twitch for a new global live stream series, RELEASED! Hosted by Zack Fox. Rapper/comedian Fox was the lone bright spot of the before-mentioned VICE Live and teaming him with director Kitao Sakurai (The Eric Andre Show, Bad Trip) for an “an interactive live performance narrative adventure” described as “in the being of Blues Clues, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Saturday Night Live, and the Best of Twitch,” is, if not a recipe for success, at least a recipe for something interesting.

Premiering Sunday, July 12 on Twitch.tv/IHEARTCOMIX, the first episode will feature singer/songwriter and internet darling Phoebe Bridgers. The loose plot synopsis for the show reads, “The series will be centered around Zack Fox, an everyman living on Planet Ass surrounded by animated characters such as his asshole pitbull sidekick Marlow or his alien landlord no one can understand but him. In each episode Zack will be visited by a featured musical artist that will help him solve his problems, or he’ll solve theirs. Always being sent on an escapade across realities in his ‘94 Corolla turned Mad Max-style spaceship, music artists will perform along the way, celebrating their new albums. Zack will have to go out of his way to be a nice guy, appease his own cast of characters and somehow make it out alive, all while dealing with the wildest shit.”

Bridgers will be there promoting her excellent new album Punisher and the episode will find her needing Zack’s help “to make it to the Cyber Goth Prom in Outer Space! But something’s not right, she needs to make some special punch to change into her true human form! And who will be her prom date??? Zack and Phoebe will traverse the galaxy to find the ingredients and answers.” Once the pair arrive at the “prom,” Bridgers will perform a few tracks from the record.

The rest of the press release touts “a level of creative writing not usually seen in live streaming” and boundary-pushing technology. As avid fans of the reference points dropped in the write-up, the wild ambition on display, and the musical stylings of Bridgers, sign us up! 

You can watch RELEASED! Hosted by Zack Fox along with us July 12 at 7 p.m. ET | 4 p.m. PT | 8 a.m. TKO | 12 a.m. GMT on TWITCH.TV/IHEARTCOMIX.