How 'The Chair Company' sets up 'a sense of normalcy before things go insane'

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Set us as preferred After a big corporate presentation, a man falls off his chair.Chaos ensues.For most creatives, it would be the setup for a single joke.

But for Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, best known for co-creating the sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave,” it’s an idea that spawned an entire series: the bizarre, brilliant comedy-cum-conspiracy thriller “The Chair Company.” You’ve never seen anything else like it.When I joined a Zoom call to speak to writers Robinson and Kanin and director Andrew DeYoung about their Emmy-nominated work on the premiere episode, “Life Goes by Too F— Fast, It Really Does,” I found myself staring at an empty room full of chairs.A fitting irony, given everything in the show is changed when Ron (Robinson) falls off one.Robinson and Kanin’s creative process is all about pushing things as far as they can without going over the edge.

“It’s a balancing act,” says Kanin, noting everything has to serve the overall story.“It’s a gut feeling,” adds Robinson.“The Chair Company” opens on a family dinner with Ron, wife Barb (Lake Bell) and their two children.

Barb is toasting Ron and his accomplishments, but he can’t pay attention because the waitress is standing awkwardly at the table.When she finally leaves, Ron declares: “The f— was that? What a weird person!”The scene sets an expectation for what we can expect from the show as a whole: It’s funny, but there’s something unsettling to how it unfolds.

It’s off-kilter.And it’s chock-full of quirky, larger-than-life characters.For Kanin, the scene delivers “a sense of normalcy before things go insane.”That insanity comes when Ron delivers a big presentation announcing the development of a mall in Canton, Ohio.

He’s a project manager, and it’s his company’s most ambitious project to d...