Iliza: Confirmed Kills

Iliza is a hidden gem when it comes to female comedians. I absolutely adored her last Netflix original, and while the speeches went on a little too long, she was able to outweigh those with her usual gut busting show. A little slow at first. But picks up to the usual momentum she does with her stand up. She does extremely well both visually and audibly. Again, I'll admit it's not as good as her last Netflix original, but as long as you are okay with her speeches she goes through, which honestly do give some pretty good points, you're in for a treat as she delivers a hot plate of unique humor. She is able to take the stereotypes down like your grandpa from ww2

Now, I have never heard of Iliza Shlesinger before I stumbled upon this stand-up comedy show on Netflix.

I will say that she is funny and she definitely has a very energetic and truly magnetic presence on the stage. With an abundance of energy, she did feel quite at home on the stage.

Her material had some good jokes, however there just was a bit too little variety in the topics in the material for my liking. And that ultimately lead to this as being a mundane and mediocre stand-up comedy show for me.

This comedy special is neither comedic nor in the least bit special, except for its amazing capacity in making 75 minutes seem like over 3 hours. Tackling subjects such as gender, feminism, and race, Iliza Shlesinger gathers more (forced) applause than laughs while making contrite, unoriginal points in ways rarely funny or entertaining.

An audience eager to like her and say they had an enjoyable time was not able to mask the obvious: this show is a weird mix of physical and observational humor while not hitting the mark on either, with producers trying *very* hard to make it all seem so clever and hilarious with an abundance of painful, misguided hashtags.

Shlesinger is fond of using her elongated, shapely body to make these weird Grinch-like steps and poses, while contorting her face in off-putting grimaces and using distinctive, cartoonish voices that made me think of a bizarro, unfunny 90's Jim Carrey.

I can accept that not being my cup of tea while resulting humorous to other people. However, what came out of Shlesinger's mouth was just miss after miss after miss, whether speaking about a night out unleashing her inner party goblin or going on and on about women who identify as mermaids, in a particularly puzzling, never-ending bit.

I did chuckle one time near the very end and will admit that a couple of observations in her social commentary were okay, but I had to really push myself to endure this show over 3-4 sittings, sticking to the end only to fairly assess it: it was dreadful.

(+) A couple of her social observations miraculously hit the mark. That's about it.

(-) Jokes extremely hard to find and even those apparent never hit the mark. Uninteresting, painful material. No. Just...no.

So this special was a HUGE step back from her previous one, Freezing Hot, and is actually not quite as good as War Paint. There are still some funny parts in it, and it is still very clear that Iliza is a talented comic, but the hamfisted feminist/femal empowerment portions just don't work here. I'm not against the message per se, but she takes some liberties with reality in order to make a point, and that dilutes her message.

She goes on for quite a bit about how women are insecure about their weight and all but blames men for this, erroneously claiming that the super thin female beauty standard embodied by heroin chic in the fashion community is the result of male preferences. This has never been true; while men do find models attractive, every man I have ever know (myself included) prefers women of a much healthier weight. Men like curves, and almost always have.

I don't say this to diminish anyone's experience with negative comments from former partners, or even random jerks on the internet, but if you are going to try to affect a positive change in society it helps to be more precise, and the perpetuation of of a mentality which seeks to blame others for your own perceived shortcomings and insecurities is not empowering. Women are, in my experience, far more critical of each other than men are of women. This is somewhat touched on in the special, but doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should given how pervasive it is.

This special marks a change in Iliza's tone. It is clear that she is trying to raise awareness in addition to entertaining an audience, and she is still a very funny person; it is equally clear that this is an issue that is important to her, but she needs to tighten up her message a bit if she wants it to have the impact she feels that it deserves.

I am a man and I am admitting I was found of this girls news spoof show and I found thus on Netflix and thought I would try it I found her hilarious and very sexy myself she is a feminist but who cares really shes a great comic and I found the shark tank bit hilarious if your looking for good comedy try this show