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Amy Schumers new stand-up specialGrowingis one of whats now a small but established genre.
Much of the set is intended to be revealing.
Too often, though,Growingis an exercise in well-trodden territory.
The truisms about pregnancy the ones usually framed as funny, anyhow are that it sucks.
This has been truer for Schumer than for most pregnant people.
Im contractually obligated to be out here, guys, she retorts.
Im not like, I dont care, the show must go on.
Im like, I will be sued by Live Nation.
Instead, there are jokes about drinking while pregnant, being a late-30s bridesmaid, and periods and tampons.
Theyre designed to be the joke versions of Schumer lifting up her dress to show off her navel Band-Aids.
They are truths about womens bodies that often go unsaid, and Schumers there to show them off.
Each of those feature intense sequences of body-horror comedy.
There is a place for demur.
But its telling that in the moments when Schumer turns toward introspection late in the show The baby?
she asks, and then continues, What the fuck am I doing?
that line of thinking fizzles quickly, never leading anywhere.
What matters is that she doesnt domuch with it.
By the end, the specials title feels relevant in a way it probably did not intend.
Growingis an in-process sort of state, the kind of thing you say about something not fully formed.
