What’s a nice Jewish comedian like Rachel Feinstein doing with a great Irish Catholic firefighter? That’s what Feinstein’s mother is wondering, too, but it’s much funnier to hear it directly from Feinstein herself in her first solo hour for Netflix.
RACHEL FEINSTEIN: GREAT GUY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: Feinstein recorded her first album and first stand-up special for Comedy Central in the 2010s, but had not released a special since 2018, when her half-hour debuted as part of Netflix’s second season. Clashes. He got married that same year and Amy Schumer was his maid of honor.
In the meantime, chances are you’ve seen her in one of Schumer’s movies or TV series, including derailed train, I feel pretty, Inside Amy Schumerand life and beth. Feinstein also played Anne Frank in a Netflix episode. Historical Roasts.
She also became a mother, so much of this hour focuses on Feinstein’s new realities of raising a daughter and, at times, also feeling like she’s raising her husband, too. Who’s the big guy now?
She previewed her special recently on Tonight’s show starring Jimmy Fallon.
What comedy specials will it remind you of?:Feinstein has shared much of her personal and professional adult life with Schumer, so there’s a lot of common ground there, but Feinstein’s experience emulating her closest family members also allows her to exist in a Venn diagram between Schumer and Maria Bamford.
Memorable jokes: So, yes, Feinstein is the titular “Big Guy” in question, and she has her husband to thank and blame for that. He insists it’s a great nickname for his wife, while she claims “that’s what you call a union trucker.”
His daughter has a more simplistic view of her parents, describing them at her preschool this way: “My dad is a hero and my mom is sarcastic.”
Meanwhile, Feinstein’s mother is so “aggressively liberal” that marrying an Irish Catholic is not perse enough for her.
However, what has really thrown her off is learning that marrying a firefighter means she has married into the firefighter family. Whether it’s trying to counteract all the silly information her husband’s co-workers are feeding her during their “sleepovers” at the firehouse, attending dinner dances on Staten Island with a sea of Ginas, or trying to navigate the Catholic communion, Feinstein is quick. with a joke
And that was even before she discovered that many of her husband’s coworkers have second jobs as DJs. “That’s like being a hand model and an astronaut,” she jokes, or perhaps worse, it’s like having the most respected jobs and the least respected at the same time. Not that her husband’s side job is much better.
Our opinion: Feinstein has in the past reveled in the wisdom and advice of her mother and grandmother, embodying their older voices to great effect, even if her mother wishes none of her foolish notions ended up on Feinstein’s “talent show.”
But there’s something strange about how she mimics her husband’s aloofness or awkwardness, expressing her voice in a way that lets us know that she really only roasts those she loves.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Feinstein jokes that she set him up with her future husband when he answered yes to this question: “Would you like to meet a semi-famous Jewish prankster?” It may seem like a more politically charged question today in 2024, but you should still answer yes when it leads you to hear what Feinstein has to say and how he says it.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy rhythm. He also airs half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories:The comic book features the latest first..
