Moontower Comedy Festival: Jacqueline Novak wows the audience with the headliner “Get on Your Knees”

This article contains references to adult humor.

After purchasing a ticket to Jacqueline Novak’s headlining show for the Moontower Comedy Festival, I had a few days to think about it and a lot of questions to ask. Namely, “Who is Jacqueline Novak?” And why is his comedy special called “Get on Your Knees”?

I didn’t answer any of these questions before the show. It was partly procrastinating, and also because a lot of the reviews I tend to read come from commentary sections on social media, traditionally hotbeds of hypersexualization in female comics, whatever their routine.

When I finally walked into Paramount’s State Theater at around 9 p.m. on September 25, long strides and arm strokes along the theater-style flagstone steps took me down a hallway of fleeting memory of childhood film journeys. , then in my row. I took my seat and reflected on the spotlights shining in the center of the stage. It was so bright and so unswervingly intense on the microphone that, oddly enough, my the nerves began to heat up.

It was my first time taking part in a live comedy show. I had no idea what I was going to watch. In the seat to my right was a man in a Wu-Tang shirt, and immediately to my left was a couple in disguise sipping wine from plastic cups. Was I in the right place? “WHO IS JACQUELINE NOVAK?”. AND, WHY IS HIS COMEDY SPECIAL TITLE “Get on your knees“??

The theater has died out. Like a spectral hoop skirt, the spotlight pierced the darkness and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” twinkled through the speakers. With a series of fun muscle flexes, Jacqueline Novak confidently turned to the microphone and tore it from the holder.

She greeted the crowd with a gentle introduction, commenting on the people still arriving and finding their place. She had obviously not started her set yet but her improvised performance was almost overactive, which I, a novice comedy lover, had to get used to quickly (but I ended up enjoying). After most of the spectators entered, she seemed ready to start the show. But, the man in the Wu-Tang shirt stood up, and in a voice that could have been honestly disheartened, Novak asked him where he was going: “Explosive diarrhea,” he said, in which could have been an honest answer.

I managed to understand a fragment of Jacqueline Novak. Now it was time to understand why the show is called “Get on Your Knees”:

It’s about blowjobs. So much so that, according to Novak, one reviewer called it tedious.

Through Novak’s words, she recounts how her courage as a young woman never ceased to blossom, even when the penises she met bloomed then withered, bloomed then withered. Her theatrical and exuberant stage presence keeps your eyes moving as what you hear takes you from sex education with her friend’s older sister to carpeted basements with a high school boyfriend. Finally, after recounting how pseudo-reading Russian novels and sitting on a window sill reflecting on her philosophy classes in college helped her vocabulary, she has a conversation in a restaurant with one of her high school buddies, the other half of her first blowjob.

This is where his oral history takes a turn. The boyfriend reveals that his confidence may have been for nothing. His enthusiasm may have been misplaced. His pipes were to the fullest. On stage, she collapses, literally lying on the stage and talking to the ceiling, wondering why she made such a big mistake.

But, like a penis, after she withered to the ground, it was time to bloom again. She stood up and her voice grew bolder as she relived the dinner conversation. Her message to her ex-boyfriend became clearer: the teeth were the key to the pipe. Teeth were the only reason any man could even distinguish a pipe from any other sexual act. Contrary to what others believed, for her, the teeth were poetic: which enriched the experience. The teeth were amazing, and because they were amazing, she’s amazing. Jacqueline Novak is the queen of the pipe.

Now … was I in the right place? When I arrived, maybe. The crowd was a bit older than me and sometimes laughed when I didn’t. A few burps of wine also made their way into my nostrils. When I thought about it a bit more, however, there was so much to love about this show.

Whether you were part of a blowjob or not, at “Get on Your Knees” you will feel like part of the crowd anyway and be able to witness some of the most concise, confident and creative concerts. . -stories that could exist on this planet. There were stimulating metaphors and abstract imagery around every corner, and with each deeper punchline throughout Novak that she gets, you’ll dig deeper into your seat.

Was I in the right place? Yes. This show was tedious, toothy and I enjoyed every second of my blown mind.

Note: 5 out of 5 goats