Christian Finnegan has always been motivated by deadlines. So when all deadlines, and virtually all creative avenues, vanished during the pandemic, he decided to curate his own motivation from the ground up. As it turns out, it became the most cherished project of his career.
In his newest hour, Show Your Work, which premiered earlier this month, Finnegan wields his tell-tale upbeat brand of comedy in a unique setting, as he set up shop in the backyard of QED Astoria in Queens with a new set of material. While the setup and execution of performing in that setting, for a max capacity of 28 people, was a lot of work, the Acton native found that the circumstances, namely the short amount of time to polish the material, had him enjoying it more in the moment than he had in the past.
“It was much more of an adventure, because the set was still brand new in many ways, and I recorded the special at a time where I would have been just taking it out on the road in previous incarnations, but with that being said, I’m really proud of it and I love the material on it,” Finnegan tells Vanyaland. “It’s funny because, usually, by the time you record something, you’re just sick of the material because you’ve done it for so long, but this stuff was still in that joyful period where I was excited to perform a lot of it, and I hope that that shows.”
Although a comedy special is typically presented as a festive or celebratory occasion, Finnegan was diligent in making sure that this project lacked the Evil Knievel-esque guitar riffs and pyro you might see in other specials — or in his own words, he wanted it to be “the polar opposite of badass.”
Additionally, with it being a comedy special, Finnegan didn’t want to make it heavy or depressing by any means, but with a documentary element that further details the struggle he and his wife, Kambri Crews, endured during the pandemic, which included but was not limited to them living at QED for a few days out of the week, it was difficult to sidestep any sort of poignant moment. And in many ways, the comedy delivered was a reaction to those feelings, and Finnegan hopes that shines through.
“What I was trying to capture, and I hope I succeeded, is just that feeling of putting your nose down, playing the hand you were dealt, and turning lemons into lemonade,” says Finnegan. “I feel like a lot of the pandemic specials that have come out, while a lot of them are great, have either ignored COVID entirely or they’ve almost become a little too dramatic in my opinion, whereas I think the day-in-day-out experience of COVID from my perspective was more about moving forward and grinding, and that sort of ‘keep calm and carry on’ attitude.”
There are many redeeming qualities that Finnegan is able to find in his latest work of art. But aside from the cathartic elements, and the fact that it is absolutely a time capsule of sorts for him as he looks back on the hardships that were hurled at both him and his wife over the last year and a half, he’s happy to feel like his self-worth isn’t as much on the line with this one.
While he’s quick to admit that he’s never been the top go-getter in comedy, Finnegan has found the joy in creating for the sake of creating (something he applauds the younger generations for), instead of holding on to “precious” material, and that has helped him focus on the joy his new hour has brought him and hopefully his fans. But even if viewers don’t share the same level of enthusiasm as Finnegan, he’s not too phased by it nowadays.
“This is the first time that I can legitimately say that I don’t really care,” says Finnegan. “I mean, I care about the special and I want people to love it and if they do, that would make me much happier, but I really think of the special as like a child of mine, and I don’t need other people to tell me that my child is cute for me to love it.”