Todays Specials
All jokes aside, stand-up is getting artful onscreen.
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There were only two audience members: Marias parents, Joel and Marilyn Bamford.
There had been nothing like it before.
And I had a front-row seat as the shows piano player.
I first got to know Maria back in the 1990s while doing free alt-comedy shows in Los Angeles.
I understand that, in a metaphorical sense, all comedians are performing for their parents.
As the sole audience members?
My job was simple: compose and play two pieces of music.
They wanted the look and feel of a mini-nightclub as an ironic counterpoint to the home setting.
Luckily, I got to speak with both parents beforehand.
They were delightful but seemed apprehensive about being on-camera.
I was also very curious to see how accurate Marias impressions were especially of her mother, Marilyn.
Maria really captured her.
The accent was slightly elevated, but both the intonation and the attitude were spot-on.
Its a collaborative art form between performer and audience.
But with theSpecial Special Special!, Maria flips this expectation on its head.
With a crowd of just two, there is little opportunity to gain any exciting comedic momentum.
In fact, it risks sounding like the comedian is bombing.
But the small crowd was not a problem for Maria.
Right from the start, she established a nice rhythm.
It was wild to see Maria do her mom impressionto her mom.
She referred to Joel and Marilyn as a loving couple, and I noticed they began holding hands.
That moment was sweet, lovely, and entirely unlike my parents dynamic.
Comics understand what it feelslike to be onstage searching for laughs.
They often provide an extra gear to the process.
I was thrilled just to be involved.
To many, myself included, Maria is a peerless force in stand-up.
Her writing, performance skills, and joke construction are wildly original.
The financing of theSpecial Special Special!came from a new company called Chill.
Meanwhile, the web address chill.com is currently utilized by a CBD-distribution outfit.
Although Maria might disagree.
She always claimed that she just wanted to shoot her special as close to her bedroom as possible.
