RJ Cyler, the 20-year-old actor who played Earl in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, has been cast as the lead in I’m Dying Up Here, the new Showtime series from Jim Carrey and comedian Dave Flebotte. The show, set during the ’70s stand-up scene in Los Angeles, will star Cyler as Adam, a young stand up comic who will do “anything” to make it in comedy—anything presumably encompassing “pretending to set himself on fire,” or “acting like he’s talking out of his butt,” but not, “vaccinate his kids,” because let’s not get crazy here. The show is being executive produced by Carrey, with Flebotte adapting the script from the nonfiction book of the same name.
The casting is pretty great news for Cyler, a relative newcomer to the acting world, since it means he’s only one “Dying” project away from filling up his punchcard and getting a free hoagie from Bob’s House Of Morbid Movie Munchies. (He’s also got a recurring role lined up on Danny McBride’s new HBO series, Vice Principals, but there’s no punchcard yet for shows with “Vice” in the title. We hope.)