Comedy Central Presents: Jackie Kashian

Jackie Kashian takes the stage in glasses and a cardigan, delivering a low-key, conversational set that contrasts her mild-mannered presentation with a deep-seated love for video game violence. Her central thesis is that the more horrifying a game’s premise, the better it is. This is illustrated by her obsessive, eight-month quest to conquer The Final Fantasy Legend on the Game Boy—a game she summarizes as a quest to climb a tower to murder God. The bit, which famously describes the ultimate deity as a little jalapeño guy on a one-inch screen, remains a favorite among nerd-comedy enthusiasts.\n\nFilmed at the Hudson Theatre in New York City, the set aired in February 2003 as part of the seventh season of Comedy Central Presents. Booking the half-hour slot was the turning point that allowed Kashian to quit her day job at a closed-captioning company and commit to comedy full-time. She fills the rest of her time detailing her intense anxiety around aggressive retail clerks, her upbringing in Wisconsin, and her family’s sales-pitch dynamics.