march 11 dho
Evening greetings and salutations, hosers. I just got back from seeing Jacqueline Novak at the Randolph. What a talent! What a spirit! I specifically avoided her Netflix special because I didn't want to have an idea of who she was all polished on TV before seeing what she was like IRL and boy fuckin' howdy do I feel good about that decision now.
If you don't know her, you should, so here's your homework:
a different clip from the same special that you will think of every time you do a certain act for the rest of your life
an L.A. Times story from January 2024 largely about Get on Your Knees
Sometimes you see a comic (or another performer) and it changes the way you look at and feel about art or craft or whatever and also your art or craft or whatever. This was one of those for me. To wit, I texted this to my partner on the way home:
The show was great by the way. [She's] got like, truly a unique and avant-garde comic style. Bizarre and esoteric and supremely idiosyncratic, but always under control. Sometimes flapping hard like a flag in a hurricane, but still, incredible control. Picasso shit. You gotta turn your head sideways to get it.
For those who may not know me IRL, in my 10+ years as an arts journalist, comedy was by far my favourite beat. I covered Just For Laughs every year and had a lot of fun doing so but the memories that are really full and textured and unique and beautiful in a way that I still chase even though it's as hard to catch as mercury falling out of a broken thermometer.
🌲 gonna
🌼 go
🌱 touch do some
🌳 grass actual writing
🌷 now
Be good to yourself.
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