For all the comedians that didn’t take a break during this historic global pandemic, Jackie Kashian managed to perform more than almost anyone and, more importantly do so safely. A large part of that had to do with her actual affinity towards virtual comedy (truly, Jackie’s joke can transcend the emotional distance of Zoom) and her tireless work ethic to the art form of stand-up comedy.
The result of countless hundreds of hours of Zoom, drive-in shows, outdoor shows, etc. etc. as well as numerous attempts to record her latest hour only to be thwarted by a new wave of COVID protocols brought on by the COVID-19 variants is this latest hour Stay-Kashian. The special seems to pick right up where Jackie left off in March 2020 when live in-person stand up went away for an extremely long “sabbatical”.
Quite simply, Stay-Kashian is a very good hour of stand-up as Jackie is particularly good at crafting them (arguably one of the very best these days). Kashian has always hit a dream comedic balance of personal, observational, satirical, clever, and aspirational with the rapid fire delivery of a multi-cam sitcom and this latest special is a further testament to that. Most comics end up doing just OK with aiming for two of those adjectives.
Kashian goes to the well of a lot of her best material, her family, specifically her father full of oblique, yet keen wisdom. That said, it’s more clear in this hour than ever before that Jackie could dissect any topic with her colorful twists of description and sharp moral observations that we could really listen to her joke about anything (as we often do during Jackie & Laurie).
Clearly, the pandemic couldn’t stop the comedy of Jackie Kashian and Stay-Kashian is proof positive of that.
Please enjoy it as a special that you can stream on YouTube here and stream it as an album here thanks to 800 Pound Gorilla.