SELF-HELP COMIC
Kirson earned place at JFL
It’s taken far too many years, but Jessica Kirson is finally getting her proper due.
This marks Kirson’s fourth visit to Just for Laughs, but this is the first time she is the show closer, and she is making the most of it at The Ethnic Show, where she has been killing it since last Wednesday. She is cast as the designated Jew in the series, but, regardless, she is being embraced by all ethnicities as she ruminates about everything from gay marriage to Americans so white that they are transparent.
Kirson will also be presenting her solo show, Talking to Myself, July 24 at Théâtre Ste-Catherine and July 26 at Salle Claude-Léveillée of Place des Arts. More than just a catchy title, one of the hallmarks of Kirson’s act is that she often turns her back on the audience and literally talks to herself on stage — hysterically neurotic conversations in which she expresses doubts about herself, her career, her relationships.
“It’s not a planned thing,” says the native New Yorker. “Whenever I feel uncomfortable or don’t get a laugh I wanted, that’s when I turn around and talk to myself.”
Rest assured, she gets a lot of laughs.
“I used to recite this line: ‘No matter how much you clap, it will never fill the hole.’ It’s just never enough. I never leave a stage going: ‘Wow, I’m great.’ I always have doubts.”
Kirson’s over-analytical approach to her act is not an accident. Both her wife and her mom are therapists, and she also studied to be a therapist. Kirson recalls complaining to her mother about constipation, to which her mom attributed her problem to pent-up resentments: “If you let them out, you will poop.” To which Kirson responded: “If I let them out,
this town will float away!”
No coincidence that Kirson is now pitching a film about living in a house with her therapist mom.
As Kirson so succinctly puts it: “I have a master’s in social work, and now I’m working as a travelling clown.”
And working it, she is. She hits the stage 10 to 15 times a week and has been doing this for nearly 20 years.
“I love comedy, though not necessarily the grind of being a comic,” says Kirson, appearing for the second straight year in The Ethnic Show series.
“I’m very grateful for everything I’ve got, but I’m frustrated because I do get a very good response a lot of the time. I have so many people who always say to me that I’m right there, that I’m going to be huge … blah, blah, blah … But I still have to figure out where I’m going.”
Kirson concedes that anger helps fuel her act. “Anger that’s going on in the rest of the world, that is.
“It helps that I have also come to realize that when things are great, it doesn’t mean they are going to stay that way. And when things are tough, they are not going to stay that way.”
She is often asked if it’s harder for a female comic to survive, and she is quick to respond that it’s not.
“I feel that I get a lot of opportunities because I’m a funny person who’s always creating stuff, but the hard part is headlining at comedy clubs around the country,” she says.
“If a lot of the male comics had my credits, they would be headlining all the time at the major clubs. That’s my only frustration when it comes to being a female comic. There are some places that won’t let me headline because I’m a woman. But, honestly, it’s more about me making money to support my family than being famous at this point.”
No doubt one of the big recent highs for Kirson was being hired by Robert De Niro to serve as his comedy mentor in the 2016 film The Comedian, wherein the Oscar-winner plays an old-time standup trying to get his career on track. In addition to Leslie Mann and Danny DeVito, the film also features such A-list wits as Billy Crystal, Hannibal Buress, Jim Norton and Gilbert Gottfried. So there was no shortage of comedic talent for De Niro to turn to, yet he opted for Kirson, who also popped up on screen in the film.
“He saw me perform at the Comedy Cellar in New York, turning my back to the audience, talking to myself and saying yeah, there were some big people in the room, but nothing was going to happen, that I was never going to make it, that I kill all the time, but I’m still in the basement next to fake flowers trying to make people like me.
“He later said he just loved what I did. Then we connected as friends, and he trusted me because I didn’t want anything from him. And he hired me. I couldn’t believe it,” says Kirson, whose stepbrother is noted actor, director and writer Zach Braff. “I was meeting with (De Niro) privately with a mic stand, just teaching him the basics of standup. He told me it was the hardest role he had ever done.
“After spending months with him, the thing that really freaked me out was, when he was on TV talking about The Comedian, he kept mentioning my name. We’re still in touch. Now some call me ‘the comic whisperer,’ ” she quips.
Not to dispute one of her great lines, but Kirson, when asked who the man is in her relationship, responds: “I guess I am — I don’t listen and I’m dead inside.” Not true.
She listens attentively — and she sure ain’t dead inside.