Editor’s Note: In the event that you find yourself endlessly scrolling through a gauntlet of streaming services for something to watch, and you come across a comedy special you may not be familiar with, chances are the first question you ask yourself, as you contemplate your next move will be something to the effect of ‘Is this something worth an hour that I can’t get back?’ — and we are here to help you shuffle through the latest and greatest comedy releases to make sure that hour and change is well spent. Welcome to The ReVue Stage. Here in this little corner carved out in Vanyaland’s comedy coverage, we have you covered when it comes to dishing out the good word on everything from new specials and albums, to books and even recaps of live shows. It’s all killer no filler around these parts, comrade. So kick back and let us help you figure out your next dose of comedic relief.
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There’s really no way to beat around the bush on this one: After years of running her smash hit off-Broadway one-woman show in spaces all over the world, Jacqueline Novak’s debut special is simply a rousing body of work in which she, in more ways than one, rises to the occasion.
As if the subject matter of Get On Your Knees, which premiered on Netflix on January 23, wasn’t upfront enough, Novak comes out of the gate knowing no chill, as she gets right into the thick of it as soon as she hits the spotlight. Even if you’re the most comfortable person when discussing the ins and outs of blowjobs (no pun intended), the approach with which you are discussing such a topic is arguably the most important part of the whole thing, and Novak shows us how to do it with ease, humor, and quite a bit of thought-provoking perspective to boot.
At the surface, there are quite a few aspects that work in tandem to make this piece of art dazzling in its own right, with one element in particular being not just what Novak is speaking about, but how she speaks about it. With the flair of a Broadway star and the verbal illustration of a seasoned poet, the longtime New York comedy titan doesn’t shy away from the fact that she’s sharing a full thesis on the psychology of blowjobs and other facets of human sexuality, but the vehicle with which she delivers her brings the show, and really the entire theme into a totally different tier of mastering the stage.
As Novak presents each new salacious talking point with break-neck speed, and then willfully takes the long way to the next chapter with asides, twists and turns aplenty, the vibrant and poetic verbal illustrations tend to suck you in to the point where you may start to feel like she’s lost you on the journey. But make no mistake, Novak employs her long-forged storyboarding chops that pull you back into the main idea of the story without skipping a beat. She commands the stage with a fierce confidence, and covers the vast landscape of the topics at hand (another pun not intended) with umph, pizazz, and every other word that conveys power and creative strength.
For that alone, this is a hella worthy chunk of time that may or may not leave you blushing, or perhaps even weak at the knees. Something it will certainly provide, however, is not only the opportunity to laugh at experiences and thoughts that could be relatable regardless of how you identify, but it also brings droves of different perspectives to the table with every sentence.
Now, there are a few ways we could write the closing to this review, all of which were fairly tongue-in-cheek and grotesque in their own rights, full of puns and gallows humor that isn’t entirely necessary, but also imaginable enough for you to figure out where we might’ve wanted to go with it.
But at the climax of our analysis (pun definitely intended), there lies a simple observation that even after being on the scene for more than a decade, throughout the 94-minute offering, Novak introduces her first and finest hour (and a half) with brute creative force and sticks the landing. In other words, she worked for this opportunity and did not blow it.
Okay, that was the last one, we swear.