At the end of filming the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the set for the Wolford Theatre was still standing for at least a little while. Before the set was decommissioned, Alex Borstein, aka Susie Myerson, put it to use for her own stand up comedy special.
To call “Corsets & Clown Suits" simply a stand up comedy special is perhaps selling this 81 minute show a bit short. Perhaps Borstein's own description of the show might provide a more accurate assessment: "a filthy TED talk with music.”
She adds, “You’re gonna learn some things that you may wish you could forget."
She's right. Alex Borstein ain't holding back.
With Barcelona natives Eric Mills and Salva Rey providing musical support, Alex Borstein launches an epic exploration of marriage, divorce, dating, aging and the shit women have to put up with.
She uses the word "pussy" a lot. I mean, A LOT.
I hope her parents on the front row are OK with that.
Open and vulnerable, Alex Bortstein dishes on her life through jokes, stories and song.
Here is a clip of one of the musical performances from the show.
"Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits" is available in Amazon Prime.
Meanwhile, John Mulaney dropped a new comedy stand up special on Netflix which normally wouldn't be a big deal but our boy John has been through some changes of his own.
As John says, “The past couple years, I’ve done a lot of work on myself, and I’ve realized that I’ll be fine as long as I get constant attention."
If you're wondering if John will talk about his divorce, new relationship with actor Olivia Munn and their baby, well, not much. There's a cursory check in on some of these plot points but the main focus of "Baby J" is John Mulaney's cocaine fueled descent into self destruction.
The special opens without an introductory bit that leads into the comedian entering the stage. Instead, the special begins with a black screen and Mulaney in the middle of a monologue.
The opening routine is an amusing although unflattering tale of his childhood about how he prayed for a grandparent’s death so he could get sympathy at school.
Then it's time for the elephant in the room as Mulaney sings,
John Mulaney's battles with drug addiction are not new. He's talked about this subject in previous specials and has been open about it in interviews.
But his recent fall from grace seems to have hit him especially hard. At one point, John proclaims, "You want to cancel John Mulaney? That don't scare me! I'm the guy who tried to KILL John Mulaney!"
He talks about the intervention that sent him back to rehab in 2020. John has notes, observing that some of the finest talents working in comedy were present (name checking Seth Meyers, Nick Kroll and Fred Armisen) but nobody said anything funny at his intervention.
He tells how he fretted that he would be recognized at rehab. Then he fretted even more when no one did.
The story John tells about buying a super expensive Rolex with his credit card for the express purpose of selling it for cash (at a loss, no less) to buy cocaine is at once hilarious (everything that could go wrong in this sequence of events went wrong) and also very darkly disturbing.
And John tells the audience, "As bad as that story makes me look, consider this: that's the story I'm willing to tell you."
There's also a bit where John pulls out the transcript of an interview he did with The Atlantic magazine a few days before the intervention and being sent to rehab. The reporter asking the questions is trying to make sense of this but the guy on the other side of the interview is unfocused and scattered except for finishing his bowl of Fruit Loops.
There's a lot about "Baby J" that feels comfortably familiar, the rat-a-tat delivery as he paces the stage like a impeccably dressed tiger at the zoo. But this is a John Mulaney with a darker edge, a grim tone underlining the laughs John can mine from his life. Or more accurately, the laughs he can mine from "the guy who tried to KILL John Mulaney!"
I had not planned to write about this last performance but I happen to catch Gilda Live on TCM this weekend which serves as a comedy special spotlight for Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live.
The film revisits Radner's most popular SNL characters and sketches such as Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, Candy Slice, Judy Miller, Lisa Loopner and Nadia Comăneci. But not having to share time with other SNL cast members, we get to really appreciate Radner's gifts for comedic timing. In this special, Radner effectively demonstrates why she was so incredibly funny and adorably sweet.
Just like Alex Borstein, Gilda Radner sends off the show with a song, a sentimental ode to young love.
And that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week: The Librarians,Doom Patrol and Superman & Lois.
And still the come: Wheel of Fortune and a future without Pat Sajak.
And we've also got posts about the return of Outlander and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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