Comedy Central Presents: Rachel Feinstein

Rachel Feinstein’s debut half-hour leans entirely on her greatest strength: highly specific character work. She doesn’t just describe her mother. She fully embodies a woman who allegedly bears a striking resemblance to Vanilla Ice and desperately wishes she were black. Feinstein peoples the stage with a parade of eccentric strangers and drunk friends, mining everyday awkward exchanges for laughs. This includes a long digression on her feelings about porn and the ongoing difficulty of finding a man who hasn’t been sprinkled with gay.

Filmed at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in New York City, the 2010 set aired just as Feinstein’s career was catching fire. She was competing on the seventh season of Last Comic Standing, eventually placing as a finalist and getting mainstream television exposure after moving to the city at seventeen to pursue comedy. The polished final edit hides the fact that Feinstein was terrified to tape the milestone set. She later admitted she spent the hours leading up to the show fantasizing about a theater fire so the insurance would pay out and she could go home.