With her first full hour, the North Carolina native brings it all back home for a deeply personal and relatable set
From the U.S. to Canada, and Mexico to Australia, Fortune Feimster entertained audiences all over the world over the course of the last two and a half years with an arsenal of deeply autobiographical material. So it’s only fitting that those stories are now set in stone with a special recorded in Charlotte, 30 minutes from where it all began in her hometown of Belmont, North Carolina.
With Sweet & Salty, which landed on Netflix this past Tuesday, Feimster has finally attained her first one-hour special — something she’s considered to be the pinnacle of the art form — and although it took 14 years to achieve such a feat, the Los Angeles-based comic is relishing in the moment, and looking forward to seeing how her hard work is received.
“It took awhile to get the material to the point of where it is [in the special], and it’s very personal for me, because it’s the story of my entire life in one hour, and I’m just really excited for people to see it, and hopefully enjoy it,” Feimster tells Vanyaland. “I just want to make people laugh with it, and hopefully they come away with something positive after watching it.”
Following her half-hour special as part of The Stand-Ups series on Netflix in 2017, the prospect of putting together a full hour became a real possibility for Feimster, so she continued to work toward it until she had what she felt was a substantial batch of material to present as a finished product. However, after shopping the material around for a potential special, it was suggested to her that it still needed a bit of work. From there, it was another year and a half on the grind for Feimster, and while the suggestion that the material wasn’t ready had her a bit bummed out initially, she’s thankful for the extra time on the road, as the end result came out better than she ever could have imagined.
While she’s ecstatic to have a brand new special out, Feimster is now at what she considers to be a crossroads, as she begins to answer her own question: What’s next?
Going back to the drawing board to build a new set — which we’ll be able to see in action when she makes her way to The Wilbur in March — may present some creative challenges, but she’s not letting the inevitable rebuilding phase that lies ahead get in the way of this moment in her career.
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“Even though I’ve been in this business for 15 years, and I’ve done some half hours, they’ve been a part of a bunch of other half hours, and with acting, I’ve always been a part of an ensemble,” says Feimster. “This is the first thing that I’ve ever gotten to do where, for a whole hour, it’s just me. After all these years in this business, I’m finally able to present something that is mine, and that’s a really proud moment for me.”
Feimster’s latest arsenal paints an entertaining and deeply personal portrait of someone trying to figure out who they are, but even while the stories are uniquely her own experiences, spanning from a rough go at a swim meet to coming out to her brothers in her mid 20s, she’s hoping that viewers can still relate to the special with the funny little moments that make up each of their own stories.
“I hope people can watch it and relate to the journey,” says Feimster. “Of course, I also hope people will laugh, because there is so much craziness going on in the world, and I don’t get political or controversial. I just want to tell funny stories, and if people can take away something positive from that, that means the world to me. Also, for the people that are gay, if they feel represented in someone like me, that’s a huge bonus too, because I certainly didn’t have the growing up, and if I can provide that to someone, that’s so awesome.”
FORTUNE FEIMSTER :: Friday, March 20 at The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 7:30 p.m., $32 to $37 :: Event Page :: Advance tickets