Comedian Iliza Shlesinger performs in Auckland in February.
In her newest special, Hot Forever, comedian Iliza Shlesinger is fired up.
“ON. FIRE.” she emphatically clarifies to TimeOut over Zoom.
Indeed she is. But then, there’s a lot going on to be fired up about. Hot Forever is a departure for Shlesinger. She’s a comedian who made her name riffing on the trials and tribulations of navigating life as a young woman; the dating, the drinking, the despair of self-analysis, and then really broke through when she named her 2018 special Elder Millennial, inadvertently coining a term for a generation still thought of as avocado-eating, entitled, fresh-faced young ‘uns in the process.
There’s still some of that in Hot Forever, although as a 39-year-old married mother now her focus and razor-sharp eye have turned to womanhood in general, as opposed to singling in on the single life.
“It’s more about explaining and understanding and making things okay,” she says. “I like it when people feel seen when they watch my specials and I like the idea that people might feel better about themselves. In doing that I feel better about myself too.”
Of course, you can’t talk about womanhood in 2022 without acknowledging the awful situation in America and Iran, where women’s basic liberties are under attack.
“I try to keep [my comedy] social but these things bleed into things which should never have become political. There are some things in your life that are just too important to not take a stance on,” she explains. “In terms of being pro-choice, body autonomy for a woman, there is no other way. I will beat that drum. I can argue that not even with stats but from the heart because it’s so clear-cut.”
As she talks you can feel her emotion firing up.
“It’s something I get passionate about,” she says. “Women have been through enough.”
She describes this new material, and getting into politics, as a balancing act. She’s well aware that if she picks too many battles (“as a woman, there’s so many to choose from,” she says) people will just tune out.
“You have this platform that you built from being funny but people will get mad when you stand for something they don’t agree with. But some things are too important to ignore. I can believe that Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter, give money to Ukraine and stand up for the women of Iran but pro-choice is something I have been through. It directly affects me and millions of other women. I don’t need to know the politics because I know what’s right.”
She calls America’s supreme court’s recent overturning of the constitutional right to abortion as, “backward” and “embarrassing”.
“I don’t believe that the people who are in favour of it really believe that it’s about babies. It’s about political control and subjugating people.”
Getting into political territory isn’t the only new area Shlesinger has begun exploring. While she was always brutally honest, and brutally funny, about her life, she is more revealing and talking about more vulnerable topics than ever before.
“I believe anything you go through in life, if it happens to you then it’s yours to talk about. There’s very little that I’m embarrassed about and there’s nothing that I’m embarrassed about when it comes to being a woman,” she says. “This is not a battle of the sexes. This is me merely wanting other girls to feel more confident because bad people are making so much money off of making people feel bad that they have no business feeling bad about. I walk that walk. I don’t try and say things that empower people, these are things that just come out of me and it turns out they’re empowering.”
She pauses for a second, caught up in a sudden realisation.
“In a way, I guess I’m hoping the younger version of me hears these things.”
She was 21 when she first started stand-up and 25 when she turned pro. At 39 her life has changed drastically so an evolution of material is to be expected. Especially when one’s life and experiences are the source material.
If you’ve seen Hot Forever, and you definitely should, you don’t need to worry about seeing old jokes at her upcoming show. Titled Back In Action she assures me that her material will have changed enough that fans needn’t worry.
“I personally think I’m much better live than on Netflix. It’ll be different and it will be so fun.”
She says she’s “pumped” to be coming to New Zealand. Although, she’s done her homework.
“I’m very much looking forward to coming to Aotearoa,” she says, carefully wrapping her wide American vowels around the pronunciation. “I only recently learned it’s the new name. I even made the name of that on my ticketing link. I was like, ‘Let’s respect the locals.’ I’m super pumped.”
Life, politics, the dancing on Tik-Tok... Shlesinger’s show promises to dive into the relatable, the serious and the absurd. She says she believes in leaving it all out on the court, so to speak, and that when she comes, she is coming to play.
“I really want people to leave hurting,” she says, with a wicked grin; “I want their sides to hurt. I want their face to hurt. I want them to leave having set aside whatever BS they were going through that day. I want people to leave feeling seen and maybe a little relieved that they’re not the only ones who feel that way. And I want them to leave having had an awesome 90 minutes of comedy.”
LOWDOWN
Who: Comedian Iliza Shlesinger
What: Bringing her Back In Action comedy special to Aotearoa
When: Tuesday, February 7. Tickets on sale now.