Chelsea Peretti at Lincoln Lodge | Comedy Review

Chelsea Peretti

If you haven't seen Chelsea Peretti eat a banana you really should. In an attempt to not look like she's giving the fruit oral sex, she ends up looking like she's giving the fruit oral sex (which of course is the point). That may not make a lot of sense on paper, but at the Lincoln Lodge where the Parks and Recreation writer closed out the indie comedy showcase's 12th season last Thursday and Friday, she brought the joke to life visually and it was pretty f-ing hilarious. Peretti killed it.

A lot of jokes were arguably old material, but I hadn't heard many of them before and reveled in what I heard. Peretti talked about her thrice-married father and how three marriages—first to her Jewish mom, then to a black woman and finally an Indian woman—gave her the chance to sample "the cuisine of so many different cultures." Even funnier was her description of her relationship with her mother, including the way in which her mom unleashes awkward affections upon Chelsea at the movies. She wondered aloud why fat men are the coolest dudes in the world who everybody wants to eat chicken wings with and high five, whereas fat women are probably just sad. "Why the different analysis? They eat the same snacks."

What was so endearing about Peretti's performance however, was her patience level and attention to detail. In a set that lasted nearly an hour Peretti owned every inch of the room, using the intimate space to explore comedy that reveled in awkwardness and shame while honing in on even the tiniest sound right down to whispers from the serving staff and even audience chatter from the furthest corners. It reminded me of why the Lodge is such an important room and what a great comedian can do when they fully inhabit it.