Iliza Shlesinger
Carolina Theatre 309 W Morgan St, Durham, North Carolina 27701
I’m not that big on Netflix comedy specials, but I’ve watched every single one of Iliza Shlesinger’s—four, to date, most recently Elder Millennial, in which the comedian sizes up life and love on the outer rim of a youth generation that’s starting to feel its age. Shlesinger is one of her generation’s best physical comedians, contrasting her CrossFit-instructor appearance with a range of grotesque caricatures and caustic insights for maximum comedic effect. Her material is good, too; Schumer-like in its blend of self-skewering barbs, dude-annihilating cannon blasts, and gender-politics commentary. True, by special number four, some of her tricks start to feel stretched a little thin—that crone-from-the-cave character, again? Is every man she knows really the shiniest-shirted New Jersey nightclub meathead imaginable? But seeing it live on stage should freshen up the experience, and Shlesinger’s likely working new material for her inevitable next special.