The following statement IS funnier than the "comedy of Mae Martin. It's like the sort of interaction you have with someone in a shop, polite and forced, but you've forgotten it before even leaving the shops.

"You're putting things on a shelf? I'm going to take those things pay for them, take them home and then I'll put them on a shelf too".

That's it, that's as "funny" as this gets, there aren't any actual jokes, this is just a collection of sentences about things humans do delivered by a person infront of an audience. Paul O'Grady - a great LGBTQ+ comedian died yesterday. If I write that sentence in a neon-colour Comic Sans and start telling people my acknowledgement of things is "funny" - it doesn't make it funny. Just bizarre and uncomfortable, like this - and it's not bizarre because of gender-identity or orientation, it's bizarre because the word "comedy" is near this.

I keep submitting this review and it doesn't post.???

I can't say I laughed uproariously during this comedy special, but I did smile pretty often. Mae is very engaging and it was a pleasant watch. I'd watch future shows by them.

As I remember, the doggy style section and callbacks were the funniest parts.

Mae has a fun stage presence. Very likeable.

There seems to be a trend in comedy specials where to me, they seem more like one-person shows than all-out comedy. Rothaniel, which I also enjoyed, was another one, as I remember. I guess the difference is that these shows seem much more personal-story based, and that's okay.

I've been a fan of Mae's since first seeing them on Baroness Von Sketch Show occasionally. On a recent road trip my wife and I got a lot of enjoyment when we listened to the Don't Ask Tig episode that featured Mae, and who didn't enjoy what they brought to the second season of The Flight attendant?

This stand-however, didn't work for me. My score of 5/10 is solely for Mae, and I feel like this special was deeply hampered by poor direction.

There were multiple moments that could have been tightened-up with some editorial guidance. I wasn't bothered, as some other reviewers were, by "stories within stories" tangents, because I've seen plenty of it in stand-up and as long as it isn't abused (as it wasn't here),it actually helps my enjoyment. It's part misdirection, part timing.

I'm not sure why Mae or Netflix chose Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) to direct this. I mentioned Tig Notaro earlier, someone who actually has experience directing a stand-up special, and a similar person (if not Tig, exactly) might have brought a more editorial approach.

I also feel like Netflix has a problem with wanting to capitalize on talents who are "hot", without evaluating whether someone has enough material or a tight enough set to bring it home in a special. I don't remember the last Netflix stand-up that I actually enjoyed. Thinking more widely, I wondered when I last enjoyed a stand-up and it was 2022's Rothaniel from Jerrod Carmichael. I appreciate that Mae and Jerrod have very different vibes, and I'm not saying Mae needs to be more subdued or that Abbi should have copied the "intimate" feel that Rothaniel had, but maybe there's some space somewhere in-between where this same act, slightly pared down, doesn't fall so flat.

Oh, and the opening/closing segments didn't really add anything to the special for me. They were just there.