First of all, if you don’t know who Iliza Shlesinger is, shame on you, go watch her stand up. She is a brilliant comedian, and just an overall fantastic woman. Her comedy is a mix of serious topics, personal beliefs, hilarious impressions of mythical creatures, and a sassy attitude to throw into the mix. Her latest stand up released on Netflix not too long ago is the special “Confirmed Kills”. In it, she expresses what it’s really like to be a woman in the modern world, bringing truth to the concept of what it really means to be a Feminist, all the while sneaking in her amazingly brilliant bit about the party goblin in all of us.
For those that don’t know, your party goblin is the creature that lives in the back of your brain, snarling in it’s sleep awaiting for the moment when it hears the magical words, “I guess I’ll come out for just one drink.” And then it’s on. Your party goblin, whatever name it may have, limps towards the front of your brain and begins taking over, leaving everything and everyone in it’s wake.
Aside from all that craziness Iliza does touch on very valid points when it comes to being a woman in a world filled with men who just see you as another ticket to bone town. She encourages women throughout her special time and time again, to wear whatever they want because this is a free country, men can be pigs, but that doesn’t give them the right to eye hump you and verbally attack you in the middle of a crowded bar. And she connects men into this picture by forcing the men in the audience and watching at home by tapping into men needing to take accountability for their actions by subconsciously forcing them into thinking what it would be like to be a woman with her comedy. That has to be the most brilliant part of her comedy. She says to women, you have to command respect, and that it is completely different from simply wanting respect.
I could go on and on about how much I love this woman but in all honesty you do have to experience her work to know what I mean when I say that she is the most brilliant comedian male or female working right now. There, I said it.
Finally I would like to say to Iliza, if this by the grace of God ever got to her, is as follows: Thank you. Thank you for speaking with such eloquence what it means to me to be a woman and in that stand as being a strong, confident, insanely brilliant human being. Thank you for talking about such hard topics that never get any attention and delivering it with beauty that allows me to go through my days knowing that I can be my crazy stupid inner self that I've finally just felt comfortable letting out, and not be afraid of whatever idiot calls me a “chatty kathy” or a “stupid bitch”, or my personal favorite “bossy”. So just thank you. In general thank you for being you. And if you do have time, please do a special at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. It would make my year.
