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Old Baby

Maria Bamford

Netflix · 2017 · 64 min

A stand-up hour that grows from a mirror to a theater.

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Maria Bamford starts her 2017 Netflix special in the most private space possible: staring directly into a mirror, performing only for herself. Directed by Jessica Yu, Old Baby does not stay there. Instead, the hour unfolds as a series of performances before increasingly larger and more public audiences, all filmed around Bamford’s own neighborhood in Los Angeles.

She graduates from the mirror to her husband and their pugs on a couch, then moves to a few friends on a park bench, a crowded bookstore aisle, a bowling alley, and finally a traditional theater. Yu cuts these disparate sets together so cleanly that Bamford’s rapid transitions and impressions remain completely uninterrupted.

This was Bamford’s first hour-long stand-up release after the premiere of her surreal comedy series Lady Dynamite, and it finds her working with a similar interest in structural fragmentation. Much of the material circles her marriage to artist Scott Marvel Cassidy. She compares the unlikely odds of finding love in middle age to the struggle of making it in show business, and contrasts the format of Say Yes to the Dress with a documentary on genocide. She also recounts a mortifying school Career Day appearance where the students labeled her a shaky, baby-like presence, which gifted her the special’s title.

Bamford’s performance is, as usual, a showcase of vocal shifts, changing perspectives, and an unusual level of candor about mental health. The progression of the venues acts as a metaphor for the process of coaxing a nervous performer out into the open. By the time she reaches the traditional stage, the intimacy of the earlier, empty rooms carries over, giving the final crowd-work bits a warm, cooperative energy.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Describing her married sex life

    Uses a smoky voice to recite an increasingly surreal litany of condiments and unguents ('fudging and wedging and lotions and potions... custards, mustards'), culminating in shouting 'Hammer, anvil!' before bending down in orgasmic exhaustion.

  2. Howard, the elderly man at the dog park without a dog

    Recounts hiring a gruff trainer from Queens who told dark WWII stories and sexually odd anecdotes, leaving the pugs cowering.

  3. Students at a school Career Day calling her 'Old Baby'

    Accepts the insult as the ideal description of her true self: very old and baby-like.

  4. Welcoming the ageing process

    Treats 'you've let yourself go' as a compliment, drawing an analogy to run-down Detroit.

  5. Being a messy eater and tearing open boxes like a raccoon

    Discovered after marriage shocked her husband, learning it is a trait shared with her sister.

  6. LARPing as their mothers and couples therapy

    Roleplays an argument acting as both her and her husband's mothers before apologizing for straying into one-woman show territory, and sings a song about seeing a couples therapist.

How it plays

Tone
Absurd, offbeat, quirky, dark, confessional, and self-deprecating.
On stage
Eccentric, candid, and self-abasing with a disarmingly endearing vulnerability, noted for vocal shifts, grotesque mimicry, and absurd playful tangents.
Pace
Rapid-fire and playful, oscillating between quiet intimate moments and bursts of animated character work.
About
Marriage and romantic commitment, Mental health and psychiatric breakdowns, Ageing and domesticity, Showbusiness and stand-up comedy career

What the critics said

Praised as sublime, sparkling, and original; critics highlighted how grounding tough subjects like psychiatric breaks and long-term domesticity in radical personal candour made it her most accessible special to date.

In the room: Progresses from performing alone in a mirror, to her husband and pugs in a living room, to park benches, a bookstore, a hot dog patio, and a bowling alley, building to a full theater where laughter escalates in scale.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, imdb.com, allmovie.com, vulture.com, nytimes.com, chortle.co.uk, decider.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed following her 2015 marriage to husband Scott, and informed by her past psychiatric hospitalizations, nervous breakdowns, and ongoing mental health advocacy.

Details

Released
Taped
The Novo Theater, Los Angeles
Runtime
64 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Jessica Yu
Topics
Before
The Guest List - Season 1 (2015)
After
Weakness Is the Brand (2020)

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