Inside Joke

Ophira Eisenberg spent years loudly telling anyone who would listen that she had absolutely no desire to become a mother. Then she got pregnant at forty-three. Billed as a one-night-only experiment, the resulting set was recorded at Union Hall in Brooklyn when she was thirty-six weeks pregnant, adding a literal ticking clock to her performance.

Filmed in 2015 and released digitally in 2017, the hour captures Eisenberg right in the middle of a major identity crisis. At the time, she was well-established as the host of the NPR trivia show Ask Me Another, making her a familiar, friendly voice to public radio listeners. Here, she sheds some of that PG-rated academic charm to get deeply personal, analyzing her transition from a late-night cocktail enthusiast to a paranoid mom-to-be counting down her final child-free weeks. She mixes traditional stand-up with structured storytelling, leaning heavily on the bleakly stylish humor that has made her a staple of The Moth.