Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Good Timing With Jo Firestone’ On Peacock: More Than OK, Boomers!

“At the start of the pandemic, comedian Jo Firestone began teaching a weekly online comedy workshop for senior citizens. In June 2021, they met in person for the first time. They have their first live stand-up show in four days.” This is their story! 

GOOD TIMING WITH JO FIRESTONE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In the movie Don’t Think Twice, Jo Firestone played an aspiring comedian taking improv classes from Gillian Jacobs’s character. In the real-life of the pandemic, Firestone got to pass along what she has learned in comedy, and chose to offer it to senior citizens over Zoom. The people who took her class ranged in age from 66 to 88, and while a couple of them had experience telling jokes before (one woman even boasted about selling a joke to Joan Rivers, for $10!), most of them described themselves as boring or serious people before deciding to take Firestone’s class. Once New York City’s live entertainment venues reopened this summer, she gathered her 16 students together, in person for the first time, and prepped them for a graduation show of sorts.
You may have seen Firestone before on Shrill, Joe Pera Talks With You, or High Maintenance. As a stand-up, she’s also performed on and written for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: It packs a spiritually satisfying punch like John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch, despite the lack of musical numbers.
Memorable Jokes: Firestone’s class prompts generate ample zingers, both intentionally and unintentionally. Example: “What’s the worst thing to have on a T-shirt?” Over their lunch break, she asks her students to write a short poem of four lines or so that rhyme. Not everyone understood the assignment.

And you really get a sense of how magically surreal this all is when Firestone warms up the crowd at the big show, asking them: “Has anyone been to a 2 p.m. comedy show before?”
Our Take: Thanks to the deft editing and Firestone’s charismatic persona, which brings out the best in her students, we’re treated to so many little gems along the 50-minute journey from meeting these 16 seniors to watching them tell jokes before a live audience.

Sitting them down for one-on-ones (or two-on-ones for a couple of couples) with Firestone to introduce themselves not only endears them to us, but also serve as testimonials for the class and this special.
I mean, when Zygy Susser talks about working as a claims rep for the Social Security Administration for 35 years, only to reveal: “I used to have a dream to end up on TV, you know, like the big thing, you know, to be on The Tonight Show, blah blah blah.” He knows it’s not blah. And when the camera cuts to Firestone, who has worked for and told jokes upon The Tonight Show, her empathy bursts through the screen. But Susser’s not done with his revelation, adding: “Now I know that will never happen. You know it’s a fulfillment. It’s part of me that I can tap into now. And it’s great that I have that opportunity to do it.”

It’s difficult, too, not to be intrigued by a blue-haired sprite named Tequila Minsky, whom Firestone describes as “New York famous” because Minsky’s byline appears in the city’s free commuter papers.
Or not to choke up when Bibi Elvers, a self-described hoarder, says her husband was funny and should have taken part in this, if only he hadn’t died two years ago. Firestone is her salvation. “You have been just great. I envy your grandparents to have somebody, I’m serious. There’s no decades between us, even though there should be. But the decades don’t exist when you’re here.”
Or not to gasp when Helaine Witt not only brags about getting paid $10 per joke from the late great Joan Rivers, but also to see footage of Rivers telling a joke Witt sold her in a late-night monologue.
With only 15 minutes reserved for the big show, we won’t get to see each of the 16 students tell their full three-minute sets. But that’s more than OK for these Boomers.
Our Call: STREAM IT. I could’ve would’ve easily binged a six-episode series about Firestone and her students, but I’m grateful that they cut it down to 50 minutes so we only see everyone at their best. It’s a great lesson to anyone out there taking life or themselves too seriously. It’s healthy and good and downright necessary to have a laugh.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Good Timing with Jo Firestone on Peacock