experimental comedy

Having seen stunt comedy specials that were done in the desert to no audience, presented as ASMR, or even done to a camera on a darkened soundstage almost like a dramatic monologue, one might think that we would have seen at least a few comedy specials done in the rear view camera of a car by this point. The novelty alone, especially after having gone through the pandemic, is tempting and, thankfully, one of our favorite stand-up comedians working today took on the challenge.

Yes, Jackie Kashian had a camera record the heads up display when the car is in reverse, showing Jackie with a mic standing in the middle of a street/alleyway to make a special. Sure, in-person performances have been happening for awhile now, but that doesn’t change the fact that the comedy special format still needs to be pushed, broken and remade, redefined, etc. With the deluge of specials that have found their way to YouTube in the last several months from comedians at all levels that were pretty much just the classic doing an hour in front of an intimate audience, Jackie performing to her film crew (yes, there was a crew for this) is a very refreshing and jaunty experiment.

It’s not an hour and it’s not even Netflix’s 15 minute version of a special, but just a tad bit over ten minutes in total. That’s enough canvas to actually do a set and revel in the sheer ridiculousness of the entire concept, which Jackie juggles beautifully (as she is one of the best writers that stand-up comedy has these days). Of course, Jackie can draw up a great 10 minutes for rear car camera and she does and, on top of that, opted for a title that’s almost too perfect, Looking Back.

It’s a tiny comedy special, but Jackie Kashian: Looking Back was more enjoyable than several hours of comedy that we watched over the last few months. Please delight in it here.