For her third Netflix hour, Fortune Feimster’s fortunes continue to rise, both personally and professionally, as she recounts in a feel-good special about her honeymoon, her childhood, and her ever-evolving relationship with her mother.
The Gist: Feimster’s first two Netflix stand-up hours, 2020’s Sweet and Salty and 2022’s Good Fortune, both landed the comedian nominations for the Critics Choice Awards.
And her relationship with Netflix continues to thrive outside of her stand-up, from her co-hosting the Netflix Is A Joke radio program “What A Joke” with Tom Papa on SiriusXM, to co-starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the streaming platform’s series, FUBAR. Feimster also co-hosts the popular podcast, Handsome, alongside Tig Notaro and Mae Martin.
It’s almost as if there’s nothing for her to complain about, right? As it turns out, yes and no. Feimster still has awkward tales to tell about her honeymoon, arguments with her spouse, haunted houses, and how her mother fits (or doesn’t) into her equations now.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: You can see here why she’s paired with Tom Papa on their SiriusXM talk show, as both share similarly optimistic perspectives on life’s ups and downs and their relationships along the way.
Memorable Jokes: Feimster jokes: “I just wanna be under the radar.”
That feels sincerely more believable after you’ve heard her describe the unnecessarily harrowing details of her honeymoon to the Maldives with a stopover in Qatar, two places where her lesbian marriage would not only be illegal, but also highly punishable. Of course, she manages to keep the storytelling light, especially in how her anxieties about a potential arrest prompt her to indulge in all sorts of fake cover stories.
Besides, Feimster and her spouse have other obstacles to overcome, whether it’s learning new ways to argue in the quiet car on an Italian train, or how their partnership somehow has made Feimster’s mother jealous.
Which leads her back in time, recollecting how after her mom’s divorce and Feimster’s own marriage, “I somehow became my mom’s husband,” even going on trips that in retrospect seem way too romantic to be mother-daughter adventures.
In between, she shares stories about how her mom met one boyfriend through the local newspaper’s classified ads, where “you just had to like each other’s grammar” and her mom thought her suitor was rich because he owned a tanning bed and an industrial ice-crushing machine. There’s the time Feimster’s biological clock, “set to know when fast-food chains stop serving breakfast,” high-tailed it to Hardee’s at 10:15 a.m. with hopes of acquiring their underrated biscuits before 10:30.
She reminisces about acting out playing the bells with the church choir, how her mom’s old house most probably definitely was haunted by ghosts, and when to know it’s time to tell your parents they’re too old to drive. For Feimster’s grandmother, that moment was pretty easy to pinpoint. For her mom, on the other hand, the inciting incident was more convoluted yet grave, so to speak.
Our Take: It’s a sign of how popular she has become that Feimster can land a story with a quippy button and spur waves of applause as if she’s piloted a plane through terrifying turbulence. Even when the stakes in her story are only as risky as trying to score breakfast biscuits from a fast-food chain.
And yet. There’s something in the way she declares “but I got my biscuits” or “and that’s why I’m gay”or even “it’s much cheaper than a therapist, and it comes with biscotti” that might make you want to stand and cheer. There’s one particularly stand-out moment where, upon looking up a childhood rival on Facebook to see how Feimster’s nemesis is faring, she unexpectedly breaks into song that most assuredly merits such approval.
Sure, these slice-of-life stories aren’t quite so revelatory or imbued with deeper significance (unless you’re in the market for a certain Carolina house).
She’s also willing to include footage over the end credits where her mom’s onstage with her at a comedy club, joking about how Mama Feimster has been the source of so much material with nothing to show for it. Which isn’t entirely accurate, either. Mom has a proud and profitable daughter to show off and show for it all.
And Feimster herself understands how far she has come already, saying at one point: “I’m so grateful that my life has unfolded the way it has. I could’ve never guessed this.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. While living in Los Angeles for more than two decades, Feimster revealed that she had set for herself a weird goal that might symbolize her success, duly influenced by her mother’s experiences. After buying a new home with her spouse, Feimster has achieved that goal and then some: “I made it, baby!”
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
