Alison Leibey wrote the entire show about abortion and how it was an honest decision and a fairly normal time in her life. However, as she was telling the show, when she called Planned Parenthood to plan this abortion, she was barely able to speak and eventually whispered into the phone.
This is one of the examples that the mattress gives us “God, a show about abortionShowing what an abortion looks like is something we shouldn’t talk about, even though it’s an experience that many people experience every day, for many different reasons. The 70 -minute mattress show, which will run through June 4 at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City, includes plenty of space beyond her abortion story. There are jokes how Candy Birth Control Announcements Dance around the product they sell. Also, the mattress signifies folly which is not socially acceptable for our menstruation to talk about it. He did the math and discovered that seasons collectively cover almost six years of our lives. “Someone runs a marathon. It takes four hours and they talk about it their whole lives,” he told the program. “We’ve been menstruating for six years and had to smile quietly until we bled at the meeting.”
As Matthew explained in an interview, he wanted to see how we got here and describe that if we could talk more rudely and more often about these related topics, either abortion wouldn’t be thorny.
“If we can’t talk about menstruation and if we can’t honestly talk about birth control in contraceptive ads, we can’t talk about bigger-for some-more serious issues like abortion. and motherhood. Leibey said, who, in addition to performing in cabaret, has been a screenwriter and producer of programs such as “The Amazing Lady Miesel”, “The Broad City” and “The Presidential Show”.
One of the most obscure jokes in the “abortion show” is when the mattress is worried that abortion is usually only talked about in times of crisis. Of course, access to abortion has become more and more of a crisis in recent years Republican-led state legislatures pass dozens of restrictive laws With the support of conservative advocacy groups. Last week The draft report of the Supreme Court was leakedBy showing a conservative majority in court preparing to rule against Rowe Wade, the stakes are still being raised to the most appalling levels.
In recent years, during her show seminars, Leibnie has found that it is a bit easier to talk about the political context of abortion than the experience itself. Joking about the laws, I think people might think a little more than they would like: “Oh, this is what a clinic looks like.” It’s a bit more true and I think it makes some people uncomfortable ”.
So it’s interesting to note that the mattress actually treats abortion as it does when it decides that the whole experience is an “anticlimax”. One of the biggest laughs on the show was his joke that he asked if he wanted to Medical abortion Or the procedure is similar to the question “Fry or salad?” Describing an abortion experience, or even mentioning that you have had it, shouldn’t be a great discovery, but it often is. (Further confirmation of opinion, Politicians At famous faces Abortion rights advocates regularly make headlines because they honestly talk about abortion alone.)
The mattress on the show confirmed that her “clumsy” experience of accessing abortion as a gay, white straight woman in New York is by no means the experience of many people across the country, especially those who suffer the most. Restrictions on abortion and direct prohibition. გრამ But this They should Be representative, he said, and the details of his life on the show are “exactly why it’s easy for me and exactly why it’s not easy for those I’m not, and that’s what’s really ruining what’s going on.” .
If one of the main goals of the show is to normalize the act of talking about abortion in a personal way, what Matthew is saying is affiliated with the politics of abortion.
“I even find it hard to tell people, my good friends, without being judgmental. I felt weird because I thought, “Oh, this is a secret and we’re not talking about it.” It’s such a feelingI had a miscarriage“- said the mattress and suddenly stopped at every word. “Because we see it as this great secret, [this] This is a good thing, it allows people who disagree and want to remove access to it, it gives more weight than necessary ”.
“I don’t mean to deny that there is abortion trauma that has nothing to do with accessibility and that’s how a person got pregnant or why they should make that decision,” she continued. “Unfortunately, it’s all bigger than that. But at least in terms of accessibility, it should be very simple for any person who needs it. “
As a stand-up comedian, much of Mattress’s work is based on her observations and experience, so there’s no question whether she’ll be talking about abortion, she said. Shortly after her abortion in 2019, she began testing out some material in her regular standing kit, ending with approximately 15 minutes of jokes and details about the experience. From there, he understood that “here’s a story bigger than this event”.
He began writing what became a one-hour show and rehearsed it in the New York area in late 2019 and early 2020. The trial ended on March 2, 2020, in a crowded show at Union Hall in Brooklyn ( that he joked almost certainly.COVID-19 Superbroadcast Event). When the first wave of the pandemic closed the comedy venues, comedians became creative and began performing outdoor shows. But once he reinforced one of the main themes of his show, he didn’t feel like the material was perfectly rehearsed.
“It’s not a show I want to shout in the park,” he said. “It’s very personal and, unfortunately, for some it’s still controversial and, of course, more adult as well. During the day, in the middle of Prospect Park, I had no intention of making this material ”.
After the COVID-19 vaccines became widely available last spring, the mattress has finally come out and is being taken seriously again. She also continued her studies at the facility, with the help of Lila Noguebauer, who directed the show’s ongoing performance. According to Matthew, Noguebauer particularly helped with “creating non-comedy parts” because the strongest part of the show comes from the mattress trying to reveal the harsh truth that people still need to talk about.
If the point of the show is that abortion is a routine and routine experience, wouldn’t it be radical to start with an abortion and not build it up?
“The story of my abortion wasn’t a turning point on the show. It’s too far away, so technically there’s no need for an end. But as I was writing and copying, I said, ‘Actually, yes, I think so.’ And I started to. -think, “Well, how did we get here?” Matthew said. “What does the show say other than this story, other than commentary on the abortion itself and making it accessible and accessible to everyone?”
Clearly the “abortion show” should be more than just abortion. At some point in the show, the mattress connects the stigma and gravity of the pathways associated with abortion, e.g. Aggressively alarming on magazine covers Warn gay women about our fertility times. She then explained how social and cultural pressures constitute motherhood as implicit expectations and how the unwillingness to be a mother is often considered an aberration. Perhaps it is easier to talk about abortion, she says, that motherhood and womanhood are not related and We choose to be childless They are not stigmatized and are subject to judgment.
For Mattress, it’s harder to talk about her show than abortion. It was a delicate dance, he said, to clarify: “How can I say what I mean, but without alienating people? – For example, to discover that “I’m not trying to confuse motherhood. I don’t think it’s for me. “
“I still think the hardest line on the show is saying I don’t want kids because you feel like people are like, ‘Oh, really?’ He said. “This answer is always a good one – I don’t understand what people are saying. But when you tell people interpersonal that, ‘I don’t like kids,’ they’ll say, ‘Oh, but you’ll be great.’ . “It’s like,” Okay, no, I don’t. “
“But these are the people who say,‘ Oh, I like you and I want to do more YouAnd be happy too, and I think women will only be happy if they have children. “I think this is what people say when they’re frustrated that you don’t want kids,” she said. “Then there are people who think, ‘Oh, you don’t know until you have a child.’ It reads: “Yes, but what happens if not?”
This suggests that the mattress should prove on his show why he is convinced he doesn’t want children – it’s ridiculous how he failed to keep the cactus alive after buying it at a store called GRDN. (“GRDN, we have PRBLM,” laughs.)
“There should be no 10 minute comedy to follow this statement. “But that’s because I need to help you understand why, so you don’t feel bad for me,” he said. “I think we still feel sorry for women without children, or let’s say they don’t want to have children, so ‘No, no. Promise I’m fine. I’m happy.'”
“If we open up this matter a little bit, then the idea of abortion is less serious,” Leibey said. “I think part of the abortion discussion that we didn’t miss was that we had such a Christmas culture and were extremely obsessed with the nuclear family, motherhood and women with everything:‘ everyone ’is a child and a career. . “
“I don’t think that’s right,” he continued. “If we can take it all in a bit and destigmatize it more to be a child, then abortion will make more sense in our culture, because ‘Oh, yes, of course she doesn’t want to be a mother and get pregnant and shouldn’t ..'”
“Oh God, the Abortion Show” runs through June 4 at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York.
Source: Huffpost