Selena Coppock is a Force.
When you’re part of comedy festival, the whole thing can be a fun blur. After all is said and done, you’re left with the feeling that you experienced something amazing — but few concrete memories. If anything does bubble up, it tends to be the undeniably great performances that cut through the fog.
This was exactly my experience with Selena Coppock’s stand up set at the 2011 Ladies are Funny Festival in Austin, Texas.
When Selena is onstage (or on TV, or in her book, or online, or anywhere, really) she storms the stage and she tackles material with a second-to-none strength.
She is, in a word: a force.
I couldn’t believe my luck when, years later and just a few months into moving to NYC, I got to share a cab with her and some friends. I got the chance to reconnect with her but I dunno if I ever truly got to tell her how awesome I thought she was or how much her set stuck with me.
Any night of the week, you could catch her out performing at shows. If you do catch her onstage, you may find yourself similarly stricken. Last night at Duplex, she recorded her first stand up comedy album and I was lucky enough to be in the audience.
Duplex is a wonderful space, full of history. Posters line the walls of past acts that have graced the stage: Barbra Streisand, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers. The room was friggin’ packed full during the 9:30 show. I saw lots of familiar faces in the crowd (including comedians, Liz Barrett and Jaqi Furback), all smiles and all ready to support Selena.
The show was hosted by the breezy and spirited, Chelsea White (MTV’s Girl Code). Chelsea kicked things off by having a lot of fun with the audience, noting that she could do a bunch of visual gags because none of them were gonna be put out as an audio-only album.
George Gordon featured on the show and his laid-back, confident style is always a treat to see. Please, go out of your way to hear him tell his bit about OG Becky from Roseanne. It’s five stars.
Then, it was Selena’s time to shine and she came out with a big burst of energy. Chelsea noted, in her introduction, that she has super pretty hair, and I’d like to one up that compliment (since I was right in the front row) and also note that her skin looked F*L*A*W*L*E*S*S. The lady can do it all.
She rolled through six major topics, filling them all with hilarious stories and punctuating them with moments of direct connection with the crowd.
Selena has always tackled a wide array of topics in her sets and she always does a great job of bringing the audience along with her while she discusses her family, her experiences in Boston, dating, and more. Her album reflects this, of course. It also features her unique takes on D’angelo’s abs. I snapped a picture of her set list and if you’re cool with spoilers, you can see it by clicking here.
Do what you have to do — update your iTunes, if you must — but get ready to download the album as soon as it’s available.
Selena Coppock is a rad, rad chick. Her stand up is worth checking out, if you can get out to see her in NYC — at the very least, you’ll want to count her album among the greats you may already have in your collection.
Selena Coppock is a standup comedian, writer, and storyteller based in NYC. She has been called a “dark horse audiences never see coming” by The Village Voice and an “impressive young talent” by the New York Times. Bustle called her one of the 8 Funniest Feminists on Twitter and TheFrisk ranked her one of the 25 Funniest Feminists on Twitter. You can find her on Twitter here.
Sarah Kennedy is a comedian from Albuquerque who lives and performs in New York. You can follow her on Twitter here.
