Eugene Mirman of Bob’s Burgers on recovery, new special after car accident

Eugene Mirman knows what you’re thinking. The last we heard from the “Bob’s Burgers” star a little over a month ago, he had just been in a terrible car accident that left his car engulfed in flames. It looked pretty sad. Yet here he is on the phone, promoting his new comedy special “Here Comes the Whimsy,” which premieres May 5 on YouTube. How come he’s back on the promo circuit so quickly?

“I know, I obviously had a crazy accident,” he said Variety. “For the first few days, people didn’t know it was me! But I’m doing really well. I got hurt, but not nearly as bad as the images out there probably made it seem. So I’m not doing too bad. I was just at the Lego store with my son for ‘May the Fourth’ looking at Star Wars Legos. So I’m back to life.”

Mirman joked that this will hopefully be his “only near-death experience. I think I’m doing pretty well considering how crazy it was.”

Mirman suffered serious injuries and was transported to a hospital after crashing into the Bedford Toll Plaza on the FE Everett Turnpike in New Hampshire on March 31. When his car caught fire, he was pulled from the wreckage by a group of witnesses, including a state trooper for New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, who happened to be nearby.

Mirman said he has no memory of the accident. “I don’t know what happened or what caused it, although I’m trying to find out or do everything I can to prevent something like this from happening,” he said. “I’m especially happy to be here.”

This also means that he did not watch any footage of the accident, except for brief images of his face next to the burning car. “What you’re describing sounds awful, and yes, I have no interest in seeing that,” Mirman said. “I definitely remember being in the ambulance and seeing a little bit of a fire. I don’t know exactly when it started. I know the vehicle obviously went up in flames, but I didn’t get burned myself – which is obviously incredibly lucky. The amount of happiness I feel is enormous. But I haven’t watched the videos and I’m not interested yet. I don’t know if there will be a time when I’m 78 and say, ‘Oh, you know what? I should really look up.’ all those videos to see how truly traumatized I would have to be, I would have to move forward! ”

Mirman said he ended up breaking his wrist and some ribs and suffered a concussion, which is likely why he has no memory of the accident. “It was a huge accident, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m a month later doing an interview, so I’m doing well,” he said.

The comedian, who portrays middle child Gene Belcher on “Bob’s Burgers,” was scheduled to do a recording session for the animated series the day after the accident, but it was postponed. But the next week he was ready to go back to work.

“Fox and Disney, everyone has reached out,” he said of the support he received from the show and its producers. “But the next week I got to record, and recently I was in LA and got to record in the studio. I have an inkling of what the images were that they saw, and I’m sure they were terrifying. And I think it’s a shame that everyone was put in an emotional position because they were so worried. Ultimately, I’m so incredibly grateful that it turned out well.”

And that brings us to “Here Comes the Whimsy,” his first new comedy special in a decade. “Here Comes the Whimsy” previously premiered on the comedy streaming service Veeps, and is now receiving much wider distribution via YouTube.

Mirman noted that he took some time off from touring during those years due to the pandemic, of course, but also after his first wife died of cancer. “Life has changed in some ways,” he said. “But I loved stand-up. The truth is, I love the quirkiness of stand-up. I kind of thrive on the silliness of things. And not that I don’t have anecdotes, and you’ll get new things. But I think that’s how much I love these kinds of absurd things from everyday life.”

As pandemic restrictions eased, Mirman did some short tours and began working on material for “Here Comes the Whimsy,” which, as described in the special’s logline, features the comedian’s “signature playful spirit to reveal a range of mild grievances through anecdotes from fatherhood, insights from travel, dress code traumas, rental car disputes and more.”

To promote the special and its accompanying album recording, Mirman’s team also came up with some fun items: “We made a lot of really crazy packages,” he said. “I made bags of flour and I drew a face on it and put a little speaker on it that made me say something funny. You could buy that. We sold packages where I would write someone’s obituary in advance, and they could use it whenever they wanted. So we kind of combined these weird gift boxes with vinyl and the special and other things.”

Mirman, whose other credits include “Flight of the Conchords,” “Delocated,” “Archer,” “Broad City,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” “Inside Amy Schumer” and “Confess, Fletch,” is back doing stand-up. That means he’ll also decide whether his recent accident — and the headlines it generated — will feature in his act.

“I’ll probably come up with this. It would probably be strange not to say anything about it,” he said. “I’m going to be doing stand-up in the next few weeks, and I’m sure I’ll talk about it and try to work out material. At the end of the day, that’s what comedians do. It’s funny to say, ‘I’ll hopefully turn this near-death experience into 15-20 great minutes!’ Or four extraordinary minutes. We will find out!”

Watch “Eugene Mirman: Here Comes the Whimsy” on YouTube below: