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Dropping your last name may seem like a diva move.
But in stand-up comedy, it has become a more practical decision, brought upon by too many typos from journalists, fans and even comedy club promoters. Sebastian Maniscalco briefly went just by Sebastian. Iliza Shlesinger went the first-name-only route in 2016 with her third Netflix special. Now comes Christina Pazsitzky, with her first Netflix hour of stand-up, Christina P: Mother Inferior.
You may remember (but most likely don’t) Pazsitzky from her participation in Funniest Wins, the summer 2014 TBS comedy competition hosted and presented by Marlon Wayans. Since then, she has appeared on truTV’s How to Be a Grown Up with her husband, comedian Tom Segura, built up a popular podcast with him called Your Mom’s House, as well as her own podcast That’s Deep Bro, and done a very grown-up thing in making a baby. Which brings us to Mother Inferior.
She’s not out to slight the Catholic church or even her own parenting abilities with that title choice. If anything, she’s quick to remind you that most babies grow up to be inferior people. “Just genetically speaking, millions of Snookis, one Beyonce.”
She’s here to deliver the hard truths that come with motherhood that usually don’t make it to the comedy stage, much less get passed on to other new and expectant mothers. That’s most graphically illustrated when she describes having an episiotomy during childbirth. That word — episiotomy — produces a collective groan from the women in the audience, while Christina snorts, then describes her initial experiences post-surgery and post-pregnancy. Don’t expect Arby’s to sponsor her next tour.
She’s also willing to dish about the emotional and physical horrors she went through as a new mother, from a newfound and unexpected hatred of her husband to an explanation of the differences between “boobies” and “mom tits.”
When it comes to kids these days, Christina believes her Generation X hates millennials simply because the younger generation loves themselves and grew up with more self-esteem. Times have changed, and parents have overcorrected. None more so dramatically perhaps as Caitlyn Jenner, whom Christina mocks for not only picking a not-sexy name, but also waiting until after menopause to change genders. Got a problem with her joking about that? “Well, she wants to be a woman, it’s time to be get criticized like one,” Christina counters.
Christina didn’t let older racist and sexist men define her, though.
She’s just happy her parents could escape Hungary during Soviet Communist domination, even if they did wind up in Detroit (or across the river in Windsor, Ontario, where Christina was born). “Yeah, kind of a lateral move,” she quips.
But growing up in America has allowed Christina to pursue her dreams, which may or may not include becoming one of those famous old celebrities whose deaths receive breathless continuous coverage on Los Angeles TV stations. She does, however, have a preferred final meal if she’s on Death Row, and a more elaborate fantasy for how everyone’s final two weeks on Earth should go.
What you see is what you get with Christina P. Her comedy is like her choice of outfit: Dark and black, perhaps, but she still has heart. In that sense, she won’t be anyone’s inferior mother.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
