By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent,Updated May 14, 2026, 11:22 a.m.
Chis Fleming in his comedy special “Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace.”Greg Endries
Chris Fleming barely has time to think right now. He is talking from Los Angeles by cell on his way to appear on a podcast with Chloe Troast. Once he hangs up, he’ll dive right into the podcast interview. It has been this way for Fleming since he released his breakthrough HBO special, “Live at the Palace,” in February.
“There’s not much time for reflection, which is maybe good,” he says. “But, yeah, it’s crazy. I’m used to just scheming in the shadows. And now I have a packed calendar.”
“Palace” was immediately hailed as brilliant, revelatory. Marc Maron gushed over it on Instagram, going so far as to say Fleming was saving stand-up comedy. He has been everywhere in the media, on TV with “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” and “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and a variety of podcasts, including “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and “Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out.” He’s on a tour that takes him to The Wilbur for a series of sold-out shows July 10-12. His schedule has been as relentless as Fleming is onstage.
“There comes a point where you’re kind of like, OK, I’m going to be a cult figure, and the dream starts to fall off, like barnacles,” he says. “And then next thing you know, they’re happening. And it’s very surprising and fun.”
Fleming’s comic toolkit was stuffed full from the beginning, when he was honing his absurd and intense act in the Comedy Studio and the long-departed Mottley’s Comedy Club around 2010.
It was in that era that Fleming, a theater major at Skidmore who missed his dance minor by one credit, had an “aha!” moment doing a physical bit imitating a bird’s mating ritual. He started using his body as well as his words, separating himself from observational comedy. The routine still inspires him. “When I’m doing a physical bit, sometimes in a theater,” he says, “I will revert back to certain moves from that bird. And it always plays. It always gets me out of a jam.”
On “Palace,” Fleming has perfected the balance between words and movement. The way he shakes his hips and stares down the camera in a bit about the responsibilities of leading a conga line complete the joke every bit as much as his riff on the trend of having a “mustachioed fiance” who thinks he’s the life of the party. “Everyone’s fun until they’re thrust into a leadership position,” he says in the bit.
Fleming felt that synchronicity reaching a peak on the tour leading up to the special recording. “The summer that I was touring this, things were clicking in a way of just almost maximizing my expression,” he says. “It was feeling like I was hitting a different type of flow. And it was so, so satisfying. Even before the release of the special, it was so fun just knowing that I had that.”
Even after he recorded “Palace” in October 2025, and knew he had something, Fleming didn’t anticipate the abundant praise of his peers when it was released. “I was so surprised by all of the people coming out of the woodwork,” he says. “I have a loyal fan base, and my plan is always just to kind of feed them and to keep us going. I really didn’t know that we were going to be getting outside of that.”
Margaret Cho was such a fan of Fleming’s first viral sensation, “Gayle,” a series of short videos about an uber-aggressive housewife from the fictional Northbread, Massachusetts (based on Fleming’s real hometown of Stow), that she tracked him down to participate. She wound up playing Yo-Yo Ma in an episode in 2013. She started bringing Fleming out to open shows to get him in front of her audiences.
“Everybody has to see this person,” she remembers thinking at the time, speaking by Zoom. “I just love his kaleidoscopic view of the world. And, you know, he just has so many things to say. And when I laugh, I’m like, scream laughing.”
Cho was happy to see that Fleming not only rounded into peak form, but learned how to capture it on film. “There’s just so much powerful imagery that he brings forth, that he shows in his body,” she says. “The way his latest special was photographed was really important, because you had so many cameras, much more than regular comedians. You have to have lots of different perspectives.”
Even his outfits got an upgrade. “I have Tony Sartino, who worked with Prince from 2000 to 2013 on his stuff,” says Fleming. “He is designing my stage attire. I’m in one of his outfits right now. It’s really gorgeous.”
Fleming says hedoesn’t feel like an overnight success. He already had a loyal audience after “Gayle” blew up. He sold out the Regent Theatre in 2016, one of his first big theater gigs, and stuck around for an hour afterwards taking photos with every fan in a line that wrapped around the seats.
“I felt like I had an amazing career before this,” he says. “It’s enough to be carried by an audience who see you and are curious about what you want to do next, and allow you to do what you want to do next.”
What Fleming isn’t used to is random people trying to check in on his emotional state. “Everyone thinks they can be the person to take you aside and be like, ‘But how are you doing, really?’” he says. “And it’s like, you think I’m gonna tell you at this bar show how I’m doing? Also, I don’t know. I’m from Massachusetts. You would have to do a blood test to know how I’m doing.”
A lot of comedians connect with an audience by being confessional or vulnerable onstage. That’s not where Fleming gets his inspiration. “I don’t have that desire to give people the illusion of knowing my life, because the little bit that I’ve experienced of that feels very strange,” he says.
What Fleming is very open about is his gratitude. He is thankful to Cho and Gary Gulman for giving him opening slots, to Rick Jenkins at the Comedy Studio for letting him develop something that might not have worked at other Boston clubs, and to Conan O’Brien for being a friend and peer and helping produce the special. “It’s like having a little bit of home out here in LA,” he says of Conan. “Being able to look into his eyes is like seeing every woman on my dad’s side. There’s a beautiful familiarity with him.”
When he sees how someone like O’Brien prepares for a show, and the results it gets him, he takes it to heart. “You see the presence that it requires to put on a long show in front of a crowd,” says Fleming. “You see this with the people that have long careers. This is a serious endeavor for the greats. And I think that’s a really powerful lesson.”
Fleming isn’t sure what’s coming next. He will be in two upcoming episodes of the comedy horror show “Widow’s Bay,” and notes he had to do some stunt training for one of those. He’s also in Judd Apatow’s “Comeback King,” expected for release in 2027. And if he doesn’t have time to reflect and plot his next move just yet, he’s comfortable with that.
“I’m really enjoying the busy-ness and I love not knowing what’s next for me,” he says. “I feel really, really content with the release of the special and that being out in the world. And I love the idea that people could watch it on planes.”
CHRIS FLEMING
At the Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston. July 10 at 7:30 p.m. (sold out) and 10 p.m. (still tickets available), July 11-12 at 7 p.m. (sold out), thewilbur.com