Son I Never Had
Netflix · 2023 · 66 min
An energetic hour of physical comedy about grief and IVF.
Heather McMahan excels at making heavy, uncomfortable subjects feel like a chaotic brunch conversation. Her debut hour centers on the absurdities of grief, particularly the sudden death of her father from pancreatic cancer, which occurred only seven days after his diagnosis. Instead of looking for solemnity, she treats the tragedy with a blunt, survivalist humor, comparing the brief timeline of his illness to her menstrual cycle and laughing at her own behavior during his eulogy.
Filmed at the historic Lexington Opera House in Lexington, Kentucky, the self-produced special arrived at a peak moment in McMahan’s career. Having built a massive, dedicated following through Instagram and her Absolutely Not podcast, she was already selling out venues like Radio City Music Hall before Netflix acquired the hour. The stage show relies heavily on the physical comedy and hyper-expressive voice work that made her an online sensation, but she translates those traits into structured, long-form storytelling.
Beyond her family dynamic, McMahan covers the indignities of modern adulthood, from her struggles with in vitro fertilization to the exhausting standards of female beauty and wellness retreats. She explains how her father’s joke that she was the “son he never had,” prompted by her thick neck and golf-shirt wardrobe, eventually shaped her perspective. It is a highly theatrical, high-energy hour that leans into the messy, unglamorous realities of getting older.
The set list
-
Body positivity, 'emergency weight', and celebrity weight loss
Riffs on how Adele, Rebel Wilson, and Khloé Kardashian violated the 'chub club' code by losing weight without warning, feigning surprise in an imaginary Cheesecake Factory intervention
-
Grieving her father's rapid decline and funeral planning
Finds dark comedy in an attractive doctor delivering terminal cancer news, funeral home upsells, and her father purchasing a casket too small for his frame
-
Lululemon Malibu retreat and Today show co-hosting call
Recounts taking edibles with NBA players while dressed in giant oversized athletic wear, leading to being incapacitated when offered a guest co-host spot on the Today show
-
Egg freezing, IVF, and tribute to her dad
Details the unglamorous realities of hormone shots and suppositories to get an embryo on ice, leading into a final deathbed tribute between father and 'son'
How it plays
- Tone
- Cathartic, cheeky, goofy, raunchy, and tenderly sincere
- On stage
- Raunchy, highly relatable, vulnerable, energetic, and self-deprecating southern storyteller
- Pace
- High-energy physical presence, described as a bundle of joy jumping across the stage with Farley-esque inspirational momentum
- About
- body image and fatphobia, grief and the sudden death of her father, fertility treatments and IVF, edibles and drugs, family dynamics
What the critics said
Reviewed as a cathartic, charming, and endearing special that successfully balances raunchy laughs with vulnerable personal tragedy
In the room: An intimate, warmly supportive theater crowd giving massive ovations
Backstory
Creating comedy out of deep grief after suddenly losing her father to pancreatic cancer within a week of diagnosis, coupled with her ongoing journey through IVF fertility treatments
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Lexington Opera House
- Runtime
- 66 min
- Where
- Netflix
- Director
- Jen Zaborowski
- Topics
- After
- Breadwinner (2024)
More from Heather McMahan
-
By a Thread
Hulu
-
Breadwinner
Hulu
If you liked this
-
Ossia Dwyer Knockout
YouTube
-
Lisa Landry Comedy Central Presents
Comedy Central
-
Josh Blue Broccoli
Stand Up! Records
-
Rachel Feinstein Only Whores Wear Purple
Comedy Central
-
Mae Martin SAP
Netflix
