Janelle James’ comedy special ‘How Romantic’ has some life lessons
Was the Boston season of “Love Is Blind” one of the worst seasons of the show — or the most entertaining? Why not both.
Like many viewers, I tuned into Sunday’s reunion to hear everyone’s explanations about why their relationships failed and to learn who was still together. At the end of the season, only two couples made it to the altar, but with different results: Aneha Singh and Cam Halloran chose not to get married in the end, while John Shannon and Sarah Williams said “I do.” However, their marriage was short-lived, with the couple filing for divorce in June, a fact uncovered by sleuths on the internet before the reunion was streamed.
A lot of hay was made about the incompatibility among the couples this season, and viewers at home were critical of this season’s cast of men, especially Rob Feeley, who was engaged to Michaella Giorgio (she’d break off the engagement after a particularly awful meeting with his friends at a bar), and Shannon. Can’t say I disagree with the assessment, but I will say I thought some viewers were overly harsh to Singh on social media — I would even go so far as to call it online bullying. Some might argue that comes with the territory of going on a highly publicized reality TV dating show, but at the end of the day, they are real people and they don’t have the luxury of tons of media training. And if they were truly there “for the right reasons,” as everyone likes to say, perhaps some of them (not all!) deserve a little more grace, especially considering this particular season was taped more than a year ago. If you want more context and answers from the people who were on the show, I’d recommend giving this week’s episode of “The Viall Files” a listen, which features an interview with Giorgio and Williams, who were among the cast favorites this season.
This leads me to this week’s Guest Spot interview, which features Janelle James, who has a new stand-up special called “How Romantic.” It covers lots of things, including politics, childbirth, dealing with newfound fame and dating and relationships. The 47-year-old comic actor has plenty of life experience and experience in the limelight, something that perhaps the “Love Is Blind” cast could learn from — it’s just a suggestion! Read more about her special below.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend a pair of spooky thrillers and improvised comedy shorts about near-death experiences. Fear and death might be easier for some people to take in than, gulp, the prospect of long-term commitment. — Maira Garcia
Turn on
Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Hudson Williams in “Yaga.”
(Christopher Lawrence / Crave)
“Yaga” (AMC+), “The Body” (Netflix)
Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore who (allegedly) eats the bones of children and lives in a cabin on chicken legs. Some people might call her a witch. She wouldn’t claim that label. “Yaga” — based on a 2019 play of the same name by creator and writer Kat Sandler — reframes Baba Yaga as a mouthpiece for female rage, punishing the men (“bad dogs”) who overlook, undervalue, harass and assault women. “Television was obsessed with male anti-heroes, like ‘Dexter’ or ‘Hannibal,’ so I liked the idea of creating a female anti-hero who could be just as entertaining,” Sandler told Toronto Life. “A woman who is technically doing evil things but has her own moral code.” If “Yaga” is a thrilling mash of fairy tales, detective procedurals and millennial rom-coms, then “The Body” is an equally feminine, satanic blend of “The Crucible,” the Salem witch trials, “Carrie,” “Jennifer’s Body” and somehow “Mean Girls.” (A delicious Y2K kick.) This Catholic schoolgirl psychological drama, ostensibly about demonic possession, is also — you guessed it — gay. Creator Quinn Shephard started writing the show the year she came out. This is girlhood as a religious experience, and a campy yet candid dissection of identity and beliefs, dressed in Juicy velour sweatpants. — Laura Zornosa
“Near Death” (YouTube)
Matt Walsh, known to many as press secretary Mike McLintock on “Veep” and a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, takes on the job of Death in this excellent improvised (very) short-form comedy. People in the midst of a near-death experience appear in his office to answer questions about their life and last moments, after which Death will direct them back to Earth or to the Great Beyond. To set the bare-bones scene, a nameplate lists his pronouns as It/That; a coffee mug bears the legend, “Life Is Tough but So Are You”; there is an unseen, unheard assistant named Kevin; and cans of Liquid Death-branded water are offered. Clients, I suppose you could call them, include a billionaire who died while intravenously ingesting the drug cocktail he expected to keep him alive until the age of 235 (“What’s your best trait?” “Not compassion.” “What is it?” “Not having compassion.”) and a Mexican soccer fan who perished in a bleacher accident (Death’s grasp of Spanish is limited). But the real attraction is in the snaky “yes and” interplay, and improvisers who know their art. — Robert Lloyd
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Janelle James tackles her newfound fame, motherhood, dating and the state of the world in her special, “How Romantic.”
(Elizabeth Sisson / Netflix)
Janelle James is no stranger to comedy. She’s been a stand-up comic for 15 years and was regularly on stage, even opening for Chris Rock, before landing her role as Principal Ava Coleman in ABC’s hit sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Since then, she’s received five consecutive Emmy nominations for supporting actress and her character has become a fan favorite on the series, which began its sixth season last month.
“Our 100th episode is coming up on ‘Abbott.’ That’s a big deal,” she tells me in an interview over video call earlier this week. The episode will serve as the midseason finale, airing Dec. 9 and was filmed at Disneyland. “People who are interested in the Janine-Gregory relationship should definitely tune in.”
But “Abbott” isn’t the only reason we’re speaking. Earlier this week, James released her first hour-long stand-up special, “How Romantic,” on Netflix, something she says was more than three years in the making. “I only do stand-up when we’re in hiatus [from ‘Abbott’]. So I was building it during each hiatus,” she recalls. “And last year, I did have an hour, and I was like, ‘OK, I have an hour. Next hiatus, I’m gonna shoot it,’ and then I did 30 shows, which resulted in another hour. I kind of trashed everything I had the year before. Built a whole new hour, and … then shot the special in Chicago.”
The special was shot at the Vic Theatre, and she’s proud of the work she put into it. However, she warns it’s not quite as family-friendly as “Abbott”: “Watch my special with adults.”
In a conversation edited for length and clarity, James talks about not saying a certain person’s name in her special, becoming famous and what might happen on “Abbott” next. — M.G.
It’s the eve of your first hour-long comedy special. How are you feeling about its arrival?
I feel excited. It’s a big deal. It’s on Netflix, who basically has cornered the market on comedy specials at this point. It’s been a long time coming. I feel good about all aspects of it, which isn’t the usual case for other things I put out. Either I’m like, “I could have done this, or I could have looked like this, or … I would have changed this.”
You looked great, by the way. Your outfit was on point [James wears a black floral mesh top, wide-leg leather pants and stilettos in the special]. The hair, I was like, you look like no other stand-up comic.
This is the first time I’ve had the time to even think about all those things. You know, my other [specials], I have a 15 and a half-hour, those I did my own glam. I think my half-hour was in the middle of the pandemic, so we weren’t even allowed to have makeup artists because we couldn’t be close to each other. And so this one was the first time I was able to have glam and have a vision of what I wanted to look like all the way down to set design. I feel like it really represents me in the in the truest way that I’ve had so far.
Something that I thought was notable right at the start, is you just kind of acknowledge the state of the world. You allude to Trump and his administration, but you never say his name. Why is that?
Why would I? Everyone knows what I’m talking about. Don’t have to. … His name is like a flash point. I don’t want then my whole special to become about him. So it’s like, I would love to cover this topic in a way that it doesn’t overshadow everything else that I talk about. That was just a smart way to do it, and just also poignant in that, like I said, you know who I’m talking about. [Laughs.]
Given the blue wave that just happened with the midterms, how are you feeling about the state of the country now?
Great, you know, it feels good. I’m glad that gives us some hope. I think once the stats came out about how people voted, it could still be better. That’s always disappointing. It’s like OK, we quote unquote won, but it’s still too close for my comfort in a lot of demographics, but hope is never bad. I always think about how ignorant people are about the political process and about our government. There’s a lot of people who think, “OK, all these people win, so now things are changing immediately,” and that’s not how it works. So I have hope and cautious optimism.
You also discuss the evolution in your life … the changes. You talk about going from checking your credit card statements to being rich — you don’t have to worry about those things so much anymore, though you’re not wealthy either. And also the trauma of fame, like not being able to go to Target anymore. Was this special a way of processing those big changes in your life?
I was trying to do a lot of things in this special, and I hope I accomplished it. But it’s again such an introduction to a lot of people to me. Basically, I’m a real private person. I’ve seen people online guessing things about me or making things up or whatever, so I’m just trying to give people a little bit so that they get my sensibilities … and also give me a little separation from this character that I play [on “Abbott”]. My character is very money-focused in a way, and I think she would be more receptive to fame. And I think it would be surprising to people how I’ve taken it. Also, I think it’s a unique perspective to have someone that is pursuing … a public profession, and but also being like, “Oh, but, not too famous,” you know what I mean? I just knew I liked what I was doing, but fame wasn’t the goal. And just trying to get all those ideas out in a funny way, in a short way, fit it into an hour, have it flow. That’s what I was trying to accomplish, and that’s also what I enjoy about stand-up: the puzzle pieces, putting it together, and then doing an hour is amazing because then you … have a throughline.
Your special also discusses motherhood and dating. I found your story about the 24-hour labor so relatable because my first child took more than 24 hours and I was just like, “Oh my God, that was the experience I had in the hospital.”
That makes me so happy because a lot of people have seen it and I’ve been getting feedback but nobody has really talked about that section. I knew going into it that I’m not the only person that experienced that, and I don’t know what your birth story is, but I feel like a thing that happens in pop culture in how pregnancy is portrayed, especially nowadays, it’s a cakewalk. Just how people speak about having kids, like just have a kid, and it’s not easy and especially if you’re not wealthy. Even when you have money, it’s hard, and then it gets worse as you go further down the income scales. Again, super briefly wanted to touch on that and figure out how I can tell that story and have it be funny, but also get the point across that like, hey, having a baby is not a cakewalk, and it’s also traumatic. The cliche of like women are warriors — we are! And so can we have some more grace and respect from others … and that somebody like me, who now looks so famous and glamorous, had an awful birth experience. I almost died.
It’s terrifying because you read the statistics, particularly about Black women and the healthcare that they receive, which is, you know, has not been as good as other people would receive.
And you know, I was saying it in a humorous way. I didn’t have a main doctor. So many people were just in and out. But beyond the joke, again, very traumatized, exposed to all these strangers, nobody really cared. They were just like, “Hey, let’s can we get this lady out of here?” But I like to do jokes like that. Yeah, it’s funny, but when you think about it, behind the joke is a very serious topic.
I want to talk a little bit about “Abbott.” This season, Ava’s still dating O’Shon (Matthew Law). And things seem to be going well, and then we see Janine and Gregory. They look like they’re about to get engaged. Where do you see these relationships heading, or what can you tell us about where things are going?
I’m guessing that Janine and Gregory will get married at some point. I don’t know if it’s this season or not, but they seem to be chugging along, and Ava and O’Shon seem to be chilling. Something is always going to come up because it’s a TV show, and Quinta always does the opposite of what you think it’s going to be. But as always, I know nothing. I see maybe two shows ahead of what you’ve seen on television, and so far, all seems to be well for both couples.
The latest episode of “Abbott” centers on the the step team’s competition. The one about tryouts earlier this season had me rolling, especially when Ava’s trying to protect the kids in case they don’t advance. Your delivery of that line was perfect. [Ava: “I know what it’s like to have your dreams crushed. When I was little, I tried out for ‘Annie.’ They told me I was Black. Shoulda waited a couple of years.”]
That joke is based on real life in that Annie is a traditionally white character, and then like I think maybe 10 years later they had a Black Annie. She was like, “Oh, I should have just waited a couple years.” Obviously, she’s been disappointed in her life as a young kid, and she’s trying to now protect these kids … It seems that her experiences have left her cut down and not able to have, or at least as a kid, much aspirations and in her wrong way and hurt way that she does everything, she’s trying to protect the students from the same thing. It was just a really smart way to convey another part of her, another layer of her and her personality. A lot of things in “Abbott” and in comedy is about delivery and timing. I think I’m good at that.
Is there anything you’re watching right now that you’re recommending to everyone, or is there something that you like to watch over and over again?
I have been rewatching “The Americans” [Hulu, Disney+]. I watched it when it first came out, and I love it so much, and I love Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell. I recently was telling my friends, “You haven’t watched ‘The Americans?’” … I’ve restarted watching it, so I can talk to them [about it]. I restarted watching “Downton Abbey” [PBS, Peacock, Prime Video] with my mom. I was in a show called “Strip Law.” It’s an animated show … on Netflix. I totally didn’t have even time to watch my own show … it’s only one season, and I recently watched it, and it’s so funny. So I’m recommending that to people.
ICYMI
Must-read stories you might have missed
