Photo by Tommy Lau
Saturday was a weird day for me. Weird, because my day job had me working at an art festival in the city, and it was a really busy workday with only enough downtime to drink water and use the bathroom occasionally. I was oblivious to any news that came down the pipeline. As soon as we were done, I chugged a Red Bull and ran as fast as I could to the theater so I didn’t miss the show.
At first, things seemed pretty normal. Plenty of happy, well-dressed comedy fans filled the theater. But, once the show started, I could see *something* in the face of Chelsea Peretti. She is one of my all-time favorite stand-up comics, and I’ve seen her enough to know something wasn’t right. Peretti, Natasha Leggero, and Sabrina Jalees started the show in a wonderfully chaotic fashion. The format was laid out- two sketches, one by Jalees, another by Peretti, followed by a stand-up. That’s when Chelsea revealed that she did a hasty rewrite that morning, while also not wanting to leave her bed after reading “the news” and all I kept thinking was, “what the hell happened today that’s worse than the pure hell we’ve lived in for months?”
Everyone dropped the anxiety for the “giveaway” at the beginning of the show, which consisted primarily of handing out random items found in Japantown before the show. They gave away plenty of snacks, lip smoother, etc. We reached the next level when Jalees pulled out a bag of dried crabs and enlisted two audience members to compete in an eating contest for a box of Pocky. Obviously, after they finished, the two strangers kissed before collecting their prizes.
Peretti pulled herself back into character when she started handing out headshots, which I am so sad I missed. This led us to our first sketch, written by Sabrina Jalees and a bonkers re-enactment of the Brooklyn Beckham wedding. They enlisted a pair of audience members for the bit, and, as far as I could tell, the gentleman who played Brooklyn had no idea what this was referencing, and neither did I. It was an excellent pop cultural update, complete with Jalees as the priest and Peretti as Victoria Beckham, who was forced to dance to Enrique Iglesias for a full 3 minutes of awkward samba. It was amazing. Also, did Victoria Beckham really ruin her son’s wedding? I’ll Google that later.
Peretti’s piece was a humorous re-enactment of the Marines’ Memorial Theater website. Bloody brilliant. It included a wizard that cast a spell on the cast, and ended with the ghost of Mark Twain complaining about how cold it was today, and ended with a “Fuck Ice and Chinga La Migra.” So, yeah, I see more about what happened today.
Next, the stand-up. I’ve never seen Sabrina Jalees before, and I was only loosely familiar with her work. She’s a solid road comic! Effortless delivery, just personal enough. She’s openly gay and told jokes from that experience in a way that was relatable to everyone. She did make one comment about how funny lesbians end up with hotter partners, while funny straight women do not. Learning later that Natasha Leggero’s husband was in the audience made it a bit funnier. Also, Moshe Kasher (Leggero’s husband) and Jordan Peele (Peretti’s husband) are both pretty handsome guys.
Natasha Leggero came in second, and that’s when I learned that something vile and scary happened in Minnesota. Again. Leggero was full-on angry. She spent the first portion of her set processing her emotions with the audience, while remaining downright hysterical. Leggero dropped her usual character to express this level of anger without taking away from the performance. Genius level. She ended her set with a fantastic bit about her husband, stopping to ask if he was still there, and he responded with an increasingly exasperated “Yup!”
Peretti began her set saying that she hadn’t done stand-up “in a while.” I couldn’t tell. Her delivery is always a little bit of pretending to be less organized, while also being overtly confident. It works well, and this set was exceptional. She touched on her life, made some brilliant comments about algorithms (although she said “nobody talks about testosterone, but since I turned 45, 90% of my ads are for test booster and the rest are for AI girlfriends), and she was so quick and effortless that I barely had time to consider most topics before she moved on. As expected, she’s still one of the best.
It was a dark day. But everyone was warm and supportive, and I got to take in 3 brilliant comic minds of this modern era, process the darkness in real time, and it felt really good.
