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Im so sick of women comics talking about their vaginas.
This is said by people who find fault with women who do stand-up, and its said often.
Saying youve heard too many female comedians discuss their genitals is bizarre.
Proportionally, youve heard hardly any.
Until this decade, stand-up at the professional level was nearly 90 percent male.
This male ignorance and indifferenceto something half of humanity goes through every month exasperates her.
I shared this ignorance.
It took being married to me for a woman to feel comfortable enough to explain it.
Listen to it now.
Theres not a single murmur of agreement or even recognition.
Were not supposed to talk about it, Wolf acknowledges.
To expose this injustice, Wolf proposes an equivalent male example.
If Paul walked into the office … she begins.
She doesnt waste time introducing Paul or telling us theres an office somewhere.
The audience can catch up.
Some of my guy friends, she interjects, have told her this analogy is too extreme.
Wolf replies, in a perfectly mocking, condescending tone.
Wolfs male friend now suggests she use the example of a nosebleed instead.
You think its like a nosebleed?
It builds and builds to 11 seconds of sustained applause, cut off only by Wolf needing to continue.
This is one of the longest applause breaks in the middle of a bit I have ever heard.
Its the opposite of the reticent hush that greeted Wolf when she first brought up the topic.
Her precise words demolish the taboo and release the emotion underneath: Mendothink its like a nosebleed.
Wolf transforms the audiences indignation at this absurdity into a chorus of full-body laughs and well-deserved adulation.
Wolf returns to the story of Paul.
Not backing down from her original metaphor, she confidently proclaims that Pauls arms viciously torn from his body.
The crowd applauds for nine seconds.
Moving briskly through her Paul at work anecdote, Wolf steps on several laughs.
Wolf knows, however, that there is a big payoff coming.
Itll be even bigger if she can get to it quickly, without stopping for small potatoes laughs.
This direct address is a rare tactic for stand-up.
She makes it personal.
Bringing the truth home earns Wolf a six-second applause break, her third in just over two minutes.
Foreshadowing is a common writing practice, but its rare in stand-up.
You dont have much time to do anything with your words except deliver the laughs the audience demands.
The sign outside didnt say The Comedy and Literary unit Store.
You administer their serotonin hit and leave your Dickens tricks at home with your books.
Its a testament to Wolfs expertise that she gets it in without slowing the bit down at all.
At its core, stand-up is a transgressive art form.
Its the ideal medium for moments when the rules of decorum mask oppression.
Wolfs next segment is gloriously impolite.
Why are you so emotional?
men will ask menstruating women.
She then makes the DeVito-sized poo a character.
Wolfs ending is fantastic.
She imagines all the effort men would put forth if they bled monthly.
She praises the stealth with which women help each other.
Ive given out four tampons since Ive been onstage, she says amid eight seconds of applause.
After comparing these exchanges to the crafty drug deals onThe Wire,Wolf calls tampon removal Stringer Bell.
she challenges the audience.
Cause a woman did it today and then shook your hand and said … Wolf changes her voice mid-sentence.
Her confident delivery deflates into the meek tone of a woman shamed into silence about her natural bodily functions.
Echoing her earlier bit of dialogue word for word, she mumbles, Im good, how are you?
The audience rewards Wolfs deft full-circle conclusion with a nine-second ovation.
30 whole seconds of Period are just Wolf waiting while the audience applauds.
In the six remaining minutes of the track, Wolf gets a laugh every ten seconds.
There are stretches, like the fart section, where she gets one everytwoseconds.
The crowds raucous approval shows that far from being over vagina material, they were hungry for it.
