Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Women of comedy defining their own rules: Hannah Gadsby’s DOUGLAS & Jacqueline Novak’s GET ON YOUR KNEES

• By drediman
• August 5, 2019
• No Comments

Right now in New York, there are a pair of seriously talented comedians – Hannah Gadsby and Jacqueline Novak – who are redefining, as women, the rules of stand-up comedy with their respective smashing new shows.

Hannah Gadsby performs “Douglas” at the Daryl Roth Theatre. Photo by Ben King.

Down at the Daryl Roth Theater at Union Square, Ms. Gadsby is currently presenting Douglas (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which – as her highly anticipated follow-up to the Netflix sensation Nannette – is the hotter ticket of the two. For those of you who took to Nannette‘s uncompromising queer agenda, Douglas is just as angry, provocative, and brilliantly articulate as its important star-making predecessor. Stand-up comedy has always been a means for self-examination, but Ms. Gadsby’s approach to the form seems to transcend it through unprecedented sustained intensity and a greater sense of purpose. Indeed, for better or worse, the hilarity of it all seems almost secondary. Her current show continues to burrow into the realm of the monologue, exploring a new range of topics – notably Ms. Gadsby’s autism, the evils of a patriarchal society (of course), anti-vaccination, and her life’s general state of affairs – with unsparing humor and unnerving personal insight. If Douglas is less overtly confrontational than Nanette, it’s rage stealthily sneaks up on you, eventually leaving you with the feeling like you’ve been once again sucker-punched.

Jacqueline Novak in “Get on Your Knees” at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Photo by Monique Carboni.

Then we have Jacqueline Novak’s Get on Your Knees (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the West Village, which is in no way the lesser of the two shows. Ms. Novak has a vivid imagination and an instantly accessible and loveably self-effacing onstage persona. Even though the show – as bluntly suggested by its title – is essentially a nearly two-hour serio-comic dissection of the act of heterosexual fellatio vis-à-vis gender roles, Ms. Novak sells it with an appealing combination of her aw-shucks delivery and spectacular intellectual virtuosity. Those of you seeking to experience an inquisitive mind at work, I would highly recommend that you pay a visit to the Cherry Lane. The brilliance of Get on Your Knees lies in Ms. Novak’s ability to invert her personal narrative and society’s preconceptions of female shame – via spot-on observations and slicing double entendres – whereby she emerges redefined, triumphantly. Biting, (no pun intent ended, of course?), daringly smart comedy, this!

DOUGLAS
Off-Broadway, Comedy
Daryl Roth Theater
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through September 7

GET ON YOU KNEES
Off-Broadway, Comedy
Cherry Lane Theatre
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through August 18