Iliza: Confirmed Kills

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.

I was not familiar with Iliza Shlesinger before I watched this. This was my first time watching her work. She was exceptionally funny in this special for Netflix. Covering topics ranging from Party Goblins, mermaids, ugly giants, the differences between the generations and the sexes; the special was a fast paced roller coaster of laughs. Iliza's humor seems to both understand and hate her status as a millennial. Due to this her humor definitely strikes a cord for a younger audience. The special ends with a hilarious Shark Tank bit. I was really impressed with her intensity throughout. The way she punctuates her jokes with screams at just the right moments reminds me of Sam Kinison. Her use of exaggerated body language and frequently acting out her jokes reminds me of Sebastion Maniscalco. She is a commanding comedic performer and I look forward to watching her other specials.

Obviously intelligent woman delivers a lot a of moments that make you think , but nothing that makes you laugh. Based on this I would say she's more suited to be a motivational speaker versus a comedienne. Came across as perpetually angry , other comics , male and female have similar delivery styles and have been hilarious. Unfortunately that's not the case here. Somewhat preachy, heavy on the feminism. Might be our demographical differences, but nowhere on this hour seventeen minute journey did I find myself laughing. Made a good start, thought she would build upon her opening bit. But that was the funniest part of the entire thing.

Observant but not especially insightful. She does a good job of articulating certain tropes and hallmarks of the modern, Western, liberal arts educated, upper middle class, female, millennial, ego monster's experience. The whole set seems forced (forced for content, for message, for relatability) - like she's only hearing the laughs and not the hollowed, dead spaces around them. She never achieves the state of mass hypnosis you need to get the audience to go along with her on the journey...and so the jokes never really land. I appreciate that she thinks she's saying something important, and that she has a voice worth hearing, but I don't think she earns it with her performance. Lots of shtick and meme-signalling throughout that comes across as manipulative despite trying to wink and nod knowingly at the audience. "Fast" and "loud" do not in themselves = "funny." That all said, I think it's an honest piece of work and these sorts of strident performances tend to focus an artist's following. I'm sure she'll strengthen her diehards and perhaps gain a few new fans because of this grating, 80s-90s era, Kinisonian-ish, rant, but no doubt she's lost a few here as well - I was on the fence (mostly cause she's alright to look at) but I'm no longer interested in watching any future specials from Iliza. Next time, less lurching at the laugh and more actual funny, please.

The whole show is fallacious, but in a funny way. And she does have a point. Still, this is a comedy show and it is far better than most philosophical debate I have assisted.