Iliza Shlesinger

Have you ever tried writing stand-up comedy? More to the point, have you ever tried to write five minutes of seriously good stand-up comedy, and succeeded?

Whether your answer is "yes" or "no", you will probably agree with me when I say it's not easy.

I've watched a lot of stand-up comedians in my time and my all too common experience has been that, after a promising start, their dialogue becomes a drone and, if I'm watching in the comfort of my own living room, it can quite literally put me to sleep.

So, if writing five minutes of good stand-up is difficult, how much more difficult is ten minutes or twenty minutes? The answer is that it's very difficult.

If you're a stand-up comedian or a stand-up comedy writer and you can do 20 minutes of consistently good stuff, then you yourself are bloody good at what you do.

All of which preamble leads me to Iliza Shlesinger's comedy special, "Freezing Hot". It's 71 minutes of seriously good stand-up comedy based largely on being a woman.

If you're a woman yourself, I think you'll love it. If you're not a woman but would like a valuable, educational and thoroughly entertaining insight into what it's like to be a woman, I think you too will love it.

In less enlightened times, it was believed by some that women aren't very funny: Iliza Shlesinger kills that myth stone dead. It was also believed that good looking women aren't funny at all. She kills that myth equally dead.

"Iliza Shlesinger: Freezing Hot" is very highly recommended.