The Half Hour

Rachel Feinstein builds her 2014 Comedy Central half-hour around her own neuroses and bad habits. She sketches out an absolute worst-case scenario for a future husband, detailing a hypothetical and deeply incompatible man named Richard. She also explains her post-sex ritual, which replaces cuddling with an immediate demand for spare change in exchange for jokes. Her vocal characterizations take center stage as she mimics her mother’s confusing restaurant behavior and questions the baffling dialogue women were forced to say in classic cinema.

Filmed at The Royale in Boston in March 2014, the set aired as part of the third season of The Half Hour. Feinstein was an established New York club comic by this point, having recorded a Comedy Central Presents set a few years prior, but she was still a year away from a memorable acting turn in Trainwreck and the release of her first full-length hour. She fits a lot of material into the short window, leaning heavily on the eccentric voices and family impressions that became a staple of her later work.