Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees

Jacqueline Novak is wildly clever-there's no doubt about that. But in Get On Your Knees, her jokes come at you so fast it feels less like a stand-up special and more like speed dating with comedy. She's gasping for air, we're gasping to keep up, and nobody's getting a moment to laugh.

There's fantastic material buried under all that velocity, but it never gets the chance to land. Comedy needs a beat, a breath-something other than a verbal sprint to the finish line. If the goal was to fit it all into one hour, maybe split it into two? Or, radical idea: slow down and let the jokes shine.

It's a missed opportunity by the director, too-someone should've said, "Let's give the brilliance a minute to breathe." Because it's there. You just need superhuman focus (and maybe subtitles) to catch.

Based on the description and the trailer, I figured I'd give the show a try. I tried to stick with it, but the constant back and forth pacing across the stage made it too hard too watch. The pacing was so annoying it districted from the actual material. Someone should have warned her about this prior to the taping. I quit watching after about 5 minutes after I fast forwarded about 20 minutes to see if maybe the pacing stopped. It didn't, so off it went. Too bad because I always like trying out comedians I haven't seen before. Based on the trailer, the material itself was really funny. Maybe I'll give it another try down the road.

I don't think I have heard such direct sexual in your face comedy from anyone like this. I defy anyone to actually count the times she says ****, ****, *******, ******. Surprisingly it is not done in a crass way. If the idea of full hour of sexual discussion is not uncomfortable for you. Give this a try. It certainly was different.

I would agree, with others, that it was fast paced and densely packed! So it seems longer than it was, and you may feel exhausted at the end.

Was it funny? Yes and no. At no time did I laugh out loud, but I smiled a lot. It is more of a performance. A highly energetic performance.

Bravo, well done Jacqueline.

Brilliant and unique. Worth a watch. Definitely didn't laugh out loud but a new twist on stand up. The entire skit is about one topic that you can guess based on the title.

She'll keep you on the edge of your seat in ways that you honestly have no idea what she'll say next.

I've never seen stand up spoken so fast and poetic.

She's a very fast spoken individual but very poetic in her way to weave in and out of storylines for 1.5 hours. It will be interesting to see what she comes out with next.

You can tell she's got much more to share as she's got one of racing minds but she's well thought out.

After having seen quite a lot of female comics like Isla Schleisinger and Amy Schumer bomb miserably on stage in Netflix specials, I was quite reluctant to click on this. However, I did. Maybe because the subject matter appealed to my lizard brain. Anyways...

Jacqueline Novak's attitude and rhythm sure are much different than that of her peers. This is more like a single person theatre than a standup show. I don't even recall how Netflix packaged it but to me it came as a bearable and even entertaining version of that "Why Don't You Like Me?" art house woman rant from an episode of Friends.

She performs well.

I mean the walking, rope jumping, breathlessly talking on stage. But jeez, this is almost 100 minutes and I stopped at the 83rd.

I'm pretty sure the whole thing would be more impactful and even funnier to listen to if only a professional had edited down a third of the source material.

It would have become rock-hard material which the audience could handle without a risk of choking on it.