Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room (2019)

Director: Linda Mendoza

Cast: Katherine Ryan

65 mins. Not Rated.

Katherine Ryan’s new stand-up special, Glitter Room, covers topics like dealing with men, parenting her daughter Violet, wanting to murder other mothers, the Kardashians, and men again. And men again. And men yet again.

Ryan’s special has one major flaw which unravels the entirety of the special, and it is that the stand-up has very few topics and she hits the same jokes over and over to wildly different results. I enjoyed most of the beginning of her act, but as she went on, I found myself waiting for the 65-minute runtime to come to an end.

Again, I have to point out that I found the first bits of the special to be quite funny, and I wasn’t offended by all the jabs at men because I did think it started very funny, but then over time the repetition lost a lot of its edge and soul. My wife was watching the special with me, and at one point, she turned to me and asked me how much of it was left because she was bored as hell, and then she remarked that this special was too long, telling me that she felt like she’d been sitting for over two hours. We were about 50 minutes in and I agreed, the comedy that didn’t work made the special drag on and on and feel so much longer.

Katherine Ryan has some comedic chops. That’s not something I’ll fight her on. Her insight was quite engaging at the beginning of Glitter Room. Her problem in the special is that she sticks to too few topics that become dull by its end. She needs to change it up more next time around.

2.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe