Get on Your Knees

Jacqueline Novak spends 90 minutes pacing the stage with manic, hyper-articulate energy, treating oral sex not as a cheap punchline but as a subject worthy of high literary and philosophical analysis. It’s an intellectualized history of fellatio that somehow weaves in Cartesian dualism, T.S. Eliot, and a highly elaborate argument that the penis is actually a feminine figure.

Filmed at the historic Town Hall in New York City, the special is the culmination of a word-of-mouth Off-Broadway hit that first took off in 2019. Under the direction of Natasha Lyonne, with cinematography by Sam Levy, the performance is captured with a tight, frenetic camera focus that mirrors Novak’s relentless pacing. She traces the microphone cord across the stage, clutching the mic close to her chest and treating her own body as an inconvenience.

The set traces Novak’s relationship to the act, starting with an essay she wrote as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and moving through underwhelming adolescent encounters. Along the way, she details the anatomy of the vulva, compares the penis to a needy drama queen, and recalls a childhood memory of reading Lolita in a pizzeria window. Stage-directed by John Early, the show earned Novak a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance during its theatrical run, followed by an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for its 2024 Netflix release.