Rachel Brosnahan Alex Borstein Dave Coulier Midge Maisel Jerry Seinfeld Deborah Vance Hannah Einbinder performer stage audience Rachel Brosnahan Alex Borstein Dave Coulier Midge Maisel Jerry Seinfeld Deborah Vance Hannah Einbinder

How ‘Hacks’ and ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Have Found a Way to Uniquely Focus on Stand-Up Comedy

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variety.com

Scott Huver In earlier sitcom eras, the stage personas of seasoned real-world stand-up comics made for reliable main characters, but rarely were they actually performing jokes professionally onstage.

Only later would supporting characters dip into the standup arena — think “Full House’s” Dave Coulier or “Facts of Life’s” Geri Jewell — until finally Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling took their funnymen and, to varying degrees, their craft, center stage on “Seinfeld” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”Today, however, two widely admired, multi-Emmy-nominated comedies — “Hacks,” set in contemporary times, and “The Marvelous Mrs.

Maisel,” at the midcentury dawn of a new style of comedy — are taking deep, hyper-detailed and subtly nuanced dives into the stand- up world, both looking uniquely thorough a female lens.

Ironically, both series are headlined by actors known for their stage, film and TV work without any stand-up background — Jean Smart as Deborah Vance on “Hacks,” Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Maisel on “Maisel” — as well as supporting actors with genuine experience in the stand-up spotlight, though playing non-stand-up characters — Hannah Einbinder and Alex Borstein, respectively.With each of the four actresses vying for Emmys this year, it’s clear that audiences are finding more than just laughs in nightclubs and showrooms; they’re finding drama, pathos and richly drawn characters, too.“It’s really a difficult subject, profession, ego, etc., to do justice to,” says Einbinder, who’s touring her own stand-up show around the country. “A lot of comedians tell me how much they feel that [the fact that] ‘Hacks’ has accurately depicted stand-up was a shock to them and has been really rewarding.

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