Catherine Cohen
A glamorous cabaret act built out of pure, unapologetic neediness.
1 special · 2022
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She steps to the microphone in rhinestones and feathers and immediately demands undivided attention. A piano plays a slow, sparkly vamp while she sings about the indignity of answering emails, interrupting her own cabaret act to complain about a guy she met on an app. Her delivery is breathy, frantic, and entirely self-aware. She reads short poems from a notebook, belts out a Broadway-style run, and then asks the front row if anyone wants to buy her a salad.
Specials
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A theatrical blend of cabaret and stand-up about millennial self-obsession.
Netflix · 61 min
On stage
As alternative comedy drifted toward subdued, deadpan storytelling in the late 2010s, she sprinted in the exact opposite direction. She built a following in New York by reviving cabaret for crowds that treat iced coffee as a personality trait. Her specific flavor of hyper-feminized, dramatic theater gave a whole wave of younger comics permission to stop wearing hoodies and start treating the stage like a spotlight.
The comedy relies on a piano accompanist to hold down a melody while she spins off on a tangent. She builds her act out of pure entitlement, describing a panic attack with the tone of someone reviewing a bad hotel room. The laughs don’t come from traditional misdirection. They emerge from the sheer volume of her grievances as she rattles off five distinct insecurities in a single breath. The routine only stalls if a crowd hesitates to indulge her constant need for validation. When a bit gets quiet, she usually just glares at the room and tells them they are wrong.
Her podcast Seek Treatment, co-hosted with comic Pat Regan, pipes the same boy-obsessed, neurotic persona directly into her fans’ earbuds.
Turning points
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Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer Win
Cohen took her cabaret comedy hour The Twist...? She's Gorgeous to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where she won the prestigious Best Newcomer award.
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Premiere of Debut Netflix Comedy Special
Cohen adapted her award-winning Edinburgh Fringe stage show into a self-titled Netflix special, introducing her cabaret-style standup to a global audience.
At a glance
- Born
- , Houston, Texas
- On stage
- since 2013
- Style
- musical comedy, cabaret, confessional, observational
- Breakout
- The Twist...? She's Gorgeous
- Influences
- Lena Dunham, Jenny Slate, Amy Schumer, Steve Martin, Martin Short
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Wikipedia, Instagram
Fans also like
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Jenny SlateExplicitly cited by Cohen as an inspiration, Slate shares her theatrical expressiveness, warmth, and unfiltered vulnerability on stage.
Podcasts
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Seek Treatment with Cat & Pat · co-host
A playful, flirty comedic podcast where Cohen and co-host Pat Regan discuss boys, sex, dating, and love alongside special guests.
Also on screen
- Broad City
- High Maintenance
- 2020–2021
- Search Party
- Three Busy Debras
- The Lovebirds
A clip to start with
Catherine Cohen on Women's Clothing Sizes