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Black Mitzvah

Tiffany Haddish

Netflix · 2019 · 55 min

A high-energy birthday celebration of heritage, fame, and surviving public failure.

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How do you follow up a massive breakout movie role, an Emmy win, and a highly publicized, disastrous New Year’s Eve set? If you are Tiffany Haddish, you hire four muscular men to carry you onto a Los Angeles stage in a chair while singing a hip-hop rendition of “Hava Nagila.”

Black Mitzvah is structured as a lavish coming-of-age celebration for Haddish’s 40th birthday, timed alongside her actual bat mitzvah. Instead of shying away from her public missteps, she immediately addresses her infamous 2018 Miami bomb with a self-effacing spin on her own catchphrase: “She wasn’t ready”. The rest of the set leans into high-energy storytelling, detailing how she discovered her Jewish heritage through her Eritrean father and her pre-fame days working the bar mitzvah dancer circuit to make rent.

Filmed in Los Angeles and released on Netflix on her birthday in December 2019, the special arrived at a critical juncture. She was transitioning from a sudden breakout star into an established Hollywood mogul, pulling double duty as a movie lead and a television host. While the show features celebrity-skewing anecdotes, such as receiving a perfectly tailored jumpsuit from Beyoncé, she balances the glamour with coarser personal routines, like an extremely graphic home remedy involving mayonnaise.

The special earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). It went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2021, making Haddish only the second Black woman to take home the prize after Whoopi Goldberg in 1986.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Entering to 'Hava Nagila' and rapping about the upcoming hour

    Raps over a DJ beat, rhyming about the jokes in the hour and how she is navigating fame.

  2. Foster-care solutions to early sexual foibles

    Details personal stories supported by photo illustrations displayed on a large screen behind her.

  3. Production delay to adjust her mic pack mid-set

    Stops the show to let crew fix equipment and mop her brow, keeping the mood light by joking she is about to be molested.

  4. Disastrous New Year's Eve standup set in Miami

    Blames alcohol and a persuasive friend, recounting the onstage bomb and encouraging phone calls from Kevin Hart, Oprah, and Sinbad.

  5. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Closing act-out on fame and money closer

    Illustrates how audiences are willing to throw money at celebrities regardless of effort.

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, celebratory, irreverent, and comedic.
On stage
Bombastic, candid, charismatic, and irreverent; embraces openness, authenticity, and high energy.
Pace
Abundant energy and momentum incorporating singing, dancing, and rhythmic entrance rapping.
About
turning 40 and womanhood, Eritrean-Jewish heritage, handling sudden fame and success, foster care background, dating and sex as an adult woman, recovering from onstage failure

What the critics said

Received generally positive appraisals highlighting her charisma, personal storytelling, and celebration of talent, though Decider recommended skipping it in favor of her scripted work.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: onlyonstreaming.com, whatsafterthemovie.com, themoviedb.org, decider.com, web.archive.org, rottentomatoes.com, fastcompany.com, en.wikipedia.org, eu.pressconnects.com.

Backstory

Released on her 40th birthday as a tardy Bat Mitzvah celebrating her entry into womanhood and embracing her Eritrean-Jewish ancestry after entering foster care as a teenager.

Details

Released
Runtime
55 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Linda Mendoza
Honors
Grammy Award for Best Comedy AlbumEmmy Nominee
Topics
Before
She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood! (2017)

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