To think I was meant to see Mae Martin perform this show live all the way back in October 2021. Curse Gophercon. But here we are. Having not seen much of Martin’s stand up work (but being quite a fan through Feel Good), I can’t tell you whether this is their best work or not. I like to think, though, that it’s not quite. They’re a natural storyteller, and take an admirable stance of deliberately not allowing others to reduce them to just having to talk about being non-binary. The jokes are good! There’s clearly a lot of thought present, and some level of thematic throughline, but I’m just, I don’t know, slightly frustrated that it’s not all tied together better. The parts are all there for it to be more than the sum, but at the moment, it’s just kind of equal. But I do enjoy the nod to the weird American tradition of having skits before a comedy special starts. This is a good one, and does actually have some resonance with the special itself, so I can’t really fault it too much. Here’s hoping for the next one to be slightly more tied together, though.