Jordan Jensen is my favourite comic of the past year, and she's just released her first hour long comedy special on Netflix called Take Me With You. I've already watched it twice and I am very happy with how it turned out. I wanted to share my happiness with you.
Jensen is a 33 year old woman who lives in NYC, having grown up in Ithaca, NY. She's the co-host of a podcast called Bein' Ian with Jordan and also recently started her own podcast called RIP Jordan Jensen. Both have guests on the regular and are a great way to learn more about the comedy world, among other things.
She also just did the rounds on many of my other favourite podcasts, like Whiskey Ginger with Andrew Santino (who I also love and has a new special out on Hulu that I haven't watched yet!), Tigerbelly, Bertcast, Good for You, You Be Trippin with Ari Shaffir, and Stavvy's World. I think she recorded an episode with Rogan but it hasn't come out yet.
Jensen has OCD and finds really insightful ways to talk about it. It only comes up momentarily in her special, but she talks about it openly on many formats. She also speaks openly about dealing with mental illness, which I think the world needs way more of.
Her special focuses on what I think I relate to the most with Jensen, which is the performance of being a feminine woman in the world. Emphasis on the feminine. She presents as a more masculine woman who is often confused by appearing to be a lesbian. She's the daughter of "three lesbian moms and a dead dad." But she stresses that she is in fact hetero, despite appearances and in defiance of society's ideal of a feminine woman.
I've never felt like a very feminine woman myself, even though I do know how to preform femininity. I relate to a lot of what she says in her special, about immobilising the dead parts of our bodies to appear more womanly. She speaks about lip fillers, waxing, plastic surgery, and bodily fluids in a way that I find entirely relatable.
Parts of her special reminded me of two other specials by female comedians that I have loved in the past year or so. The first is Jacqueline Novak's Get On Your Knees, which is a special dedicated to the idea and act of a blow job. If you don't think this could fill an entire special, you are absolutely wrong. Novak brought the Emmy-nominated Netflix special into the world originally as an off-Broadway one-woman show. It is an epic diatribe on sex and sexuality and it is a poetic performance that I had to rewatch immediately after finishing it the first time.
The other special that I really loved is by friend of Jensen's, Rosebud Baker, who put out her special The Mother Lode on Netflix earlier this year. Her special, filmed in two parts, features Rosebud eight months pregnant with her daughter and then a year postpartum. The contrast between her body accentuates the content of her comedy–the darkness of a female body and the physical and mental journey of bringing another person into the world. I highly recommend watching this SNL writer's special if you haven't yet seen it.
I don't want to give away too much of Jordan's special, but I for sure think you should watch it tonight on Netflix. If you are a woman, you will I hope find yourself relating to the alienation and disassociation that Jensen speaks about with the absolutely perfect accompanying facial expressions and act-outs. And if you are a man, surely you can find a sense of humour about how stupid your toes look when you come.
Hopefully you will fall in love with Jensen, as I have, and you'll have plenty of catching up to do reviewing her work online. Americans, you should check out her tour dates and try and see her on the road. She deserves to be playing theatres in the US and hopefully someday she will make it to Australia. Enjoy, dear Reader, and don't forget to find the humour in the absurdity of life. Subscribe for more comedy recommendations and cultural commentary.
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