Catherine Cohen’s Netflix Cabaret Special Gives Narcissism a Good Name
Catherine Cohen has always wanted to be a performer. Her new cabaret-inspired comedy special, The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous, out now on Netflix, opens with footage of the comedian/singer as a toddler, twirling around in a tutu and confidently declaring, “I’m Catherine and I dance beautiful.” It’s a moment that cleverly parallels the present-day intro to the special, in which Cohen does vocal warm-ups in front of the mirror in her dressing room. Laughing and inspecting her dramatic winged eyeliner, she says, “I feel completely insane, but I look literally stunning.”
The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous is a comedy cabaret show, filmed last September at Joe’s Pub in New York City. It’s an updated version of the act Cohen first developed in 2017 with pianist Henry Koperski, for which she won Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. During the set, she seamlessly segues from stand-up monologues about how she wants to be the kind of girl who wears jeans and hates the taste of beer, to riotously funny songs with lyrics like, “Boys never wanted to kiss me, so now I do comedy.”
“I was set to tape the special in 2020, and then the world shut down. And so I feel really grateful that we got to do it this year,” Cohen tells The Daily Beast. “I think all the time away from the stage just made me appreciate it more. And it was just the most magical thing ever. And now tons of people are finally going to see it. It feels surreal.”