The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: The Best Stand Up Sets
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is officially over. Amongst its many unique qualities is that it is the rare series that ended too early. With this team behind it and the direction it was going, Maisel could have continued for another several years at this high level. Yet in still, it’s come to an end. With a great final season and ending, it now enters the annals of history amongst some of the best television series ever made. This is due to its tremendous technical execution and the aforementioned unique qualities. Maisel was able to stand on its own in many ways and by leaning into that uniqueness stood apart from all of its contemporaries. The biggest example of this is found in its stand-up comedy.
While Maisel isn’t the first series to feature stand-up comedy not only as a major plot point, but as an extended sequence throughout, you’d be hard pressed to find one that’s done it better. The writing team behind successfully crafted technical stand-up sets. Rachel Brosnahan follows through with astonishing delivery. For someone that has received plenty of praise and accolades, this element of her performance still seems underrated. It is masterful how she commands the stage showcasing a true understanding of the artform and how her character would and should do it. This has all come together to provide the series with many incredible moments that have come to define it. While these moments aren’t necessary for the series to be great, because they are so great it can transcend to new heights.
8. Revenge
Season 4 Episode 1
Best Line: “I stood there and I watched that plane fly away and I realized that once again a man has stepped in and fucked up my life. And just like the first time I was dressed magnificently while he did it.”
One of the shorter sets on the list, this makes the list for more its context than its jokes. The only real exception on the list. You can draw a direct line from this set to the final episode of the series. After the events of The Apollo, Midge is left without a job and her career is once again spiraling. This time it’s tied to the whims of a man. It’s the indignation toward the situation that fuels this set. While the jokes are low the passion is high and it’s very intriguing. This is a different look for Midge, in black like she’s mourning, toned down in terms of dress and hyper focused. Her passion is the through line and some of her most memorable moments are when she is most passionate. This is another one of those. A set that adds to the legend and her comedic repertoire. That hyper focus is something she channels in later sets, harnessing her anger and passion to set the fire on stage. We get the makings of that in this set, which is truly great to see.
7. First Gig
Season 2 Episode 2
Best Line: “Comedy is fueled by oppression, by the lack of power. By sadness and disappointment, by abandonment and humiliation. Now who does that describe more than women. Judging by those standards, only women should be funny…and Stan.”
Midge’s best sets are ones that explore a larger observational point about women and the witty riffing that makes her special as a comic. Her first gig is a great example of this because it matches the greater observational point that female comics have every right to the stage as men (also a greater theme of the series). At first it looked to be a bomb, we even got so far as the I can’t watch but can’t look away feeling that accompanies a comic bombing. As soon as the Susie assisted spotlight hits her, you can visibly see her come to life and then immediately begin to set the stage on fire. It’s clever, smart, funny and speaks to the major ideas of the series along with her current station as a character. This doesn’t pack the meaning that some of the other sets do but in terms of its sharpness, it's as good as any.
6. The Catskills
Season 2 Episode 5
Best Line: “I don’t think I’ve ever said the word sex in front of my father because my father looks like what you think a Columbia professor would look like. Lots of brown and tweed and plaid a scowl of intellectual superiority because he is intellectually superior. He is very smart. My mother told me once that on their wedding night she pictured having sex with his mind so she didn’t have to think of his penis.”
One of the few sets on this list that is less about the quality, but her set at the Concord in the Catskills has to make this list. One of the most important moments in the series happens during this set and thus makes it unforgettable. Midnight at the Concord is the biggest set she’s done to this point, biggest room, most people and much like you would expect she comes out on fire. Subverting expectations in the special way that she always does with each set by simply doing something slightly different. In this case an opening about food is far from the raunchy set she was asked to deliver. As she leads into that, the discovery of her father in the front row, discovering her secret and hearing about how she “let a boy go Christopher Columbus on her nether regions” turns the set on its head. A panicked Midge presses on and delivers a set that isn’t polished or sharp in the way we’ve come to expect, but it is still so funny. Anecdotes about her father, the relationship girls have with their fathers and her parents’ sex life make a hilariously uncomfortable moment much more uncomfortable. All together it’s one of the most memorable moments of the series.
5. The Telethon
Season 2 Episode 9
Best Line: “Thanks to those of you at home that are still conscious, and for those of you who aren't conscious but are still in front of your tvs…vote for Kennedy, vote for Kennedy.”
The Telethon is Midge’s biggest in the series at this point. It’s her first legitimate break and the highest stakes of any set so far. By the end of two seasons we know how talented Midge is but we haven’t seen a star making turn yet. She’s flashed her star quality but we haven’t seen a set that tapped into the unique quality that separates the best comedians from the good ones. The Telethon is just that. A remarkable set that showcases the growth of Midge as a comedian. The beginning is a clean few minutes that features some of her best jokes of any set she does. That leads into her improv work on the phones, displaying the raw talent that in her biggest moments she always leans on. We see Midge fully as Susie does in this set. She is a star and to reinforce it, the show beautifully cuts in several other people (family and friends mostly) recognizing it as well.
4. The Apollo
Season 3 Episode 8
Best Line: “Shy comes home, he doesn’t need a plane, he doesn’t need a train, he just puts on his Judy Garland shoes, clicks his heels together three times and says there’s no place like Harlem, there’s no place like Harlem.”
Arguably the best example of all the great elements of television colliding at once. The culmination of Season Three, a truly wonderful season, is a gut punch. One that knocks the wind out of the viewer and the main characters at the same time. Historical context, plot knowledge, character development and foreshadowing all come together around a set that is the work of a comedian truly at the height of her powers. The Apollo is a big deal, a very big deal. The show acknowledges that while tactfully addressing the elephant in the room. With the stakes high, failure looking imminent, Midge gets the green light to do what she always does in high pressure moments, freestyle.
After some self-deprecating white jokes and food humor, she (as she almost always does) has the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. She then launches into humor about Shy Baldwin. All observational, which after a season with the character the audience is in on the jokes. It’s hilarious. This set doesn’t give you the larger thematic resonance that most do, in reference to women or the struggle of a female comedian, it’s just great jokes. Just punchline after punchline of the highest quality. It’s one of the funniest sets in the series. When you throw in the subtext and the fallout, it’s one of the most important ones.
3. First time at the Gaslight
Season 1 Episode 1
Best Line: “I loved him, and I showed him I loved him. All that shit they say about Jewish girls in the bedroom, not true. There are French whores standing around the Murray district saying, ‘did you hear what Midge did to Joel’s balls the other night’?”
The importance of this set is larger than almost any other in the series. It’s the first time we see her do stand up and it establishes a standard of quality, and on that front it delivers. Essentially, it’s a showcase of natural ability. There is no need for polish but what it lacks it makes up for in talent. It displays the wide array of Midge’s abilities. There are straight jokes, crowd work, storytelling, analogies, and metaphors. She’s doing about everything a comedian can do on stage.
That’s important for us to see because we understand why Susie is so interested, and why Midge would throw all her eggs in this basket. She’s really good. It’s Midge at her best, not thinking, full of passion, fire and anger. She speaks from that raw emotion. Something that will come to define her sets and something that, particularly in that time, is rare especially for a woman to display on stage. For a set to accomplish all of this, it has to be near the top of any list.
2. Are Women More Important than God?
Season 4 Episode 8
Best Line: “So what does this mean? Are women more important than God? What if we discover one day that we were always the ones in charge, just no one told us.”
Tucked away in the finale of Season Four is one of Midge’s best sets. In the midst of an episode packed full of incredible moments, is a monologue that might be the best moment in the series. Another set that rivals any we’ve seen, a raid, a romance, and even more, we get a set that highlights Midge’s real superpower as a comedian. All great comedians have at least one trait that defines them, punchlines, introspection, storytelling, political observations, crowd work, etc. However, the best comedians can do several of them at a great level. Midge’s improvisational skills set her apart from most. She can freestyle a whole set. She’s a great storyteller, punching with the best of them while making astute observations.
However, in this set, while Joel’s father lies in a hospital post heart attack we see (once again) her real superpower. The trait that when added to all the rest makes her elite. She is able to mine this trauma into a larger point not just about herself or her station but the construct of the society we all live in. It’s still very funny and alongside that, it’s moving and thoughtful. You get chills during the back half of the set when she gets to her point in acknowledging the nurses in the hospital. “What if we were the ones in charge the whole time and no one told us?” A powerful sentiment that hits you hard and changes the way you view society. That is what marks a great set.
1. Four Minutes
Season 5 Episode 9
Best Line: “That’s the kind of fame I want, where I don’t ever have to know who I am or where I’m going. Where one day, Bob Hope walks up to me in a restaurant and says, ‘Hi I’m Bob Hope. You probably don’t remember me’. And I say, ‘of course I do, I’ll have the chicken’.”
The longest of all Midge’s sets comes in the series finale. Hijacking the stage with elegance and charm, as only she can do. She culminates the series and her journey with the star turning set we’ve all been waiting for. Very few cutaways and its length give it the feel of a real set. And while the stakes should be higher than ever, we know she’s gonna kill so there’s no tension. We just get to watch her do what she loves, and she does it better than ever. It’s a culmination in many ways, we now see a fully polished comedian. This set is flawless. Blending in all the elements she’s been honing over the entirety of the series and presenting a set that is worthy of the moment.
Improv, storytelling, punchlines, callbacks and even a philosophical nugget to take home, this set has it all. Midge Maisel is a star! And in this moment we have the opportunity to bask in it, and take in the full weight of what we are watching. We are privy to greatness and the creation of that. The secondary brilliance of the set lies past the structure and execution. It’s in the emotion we experience throughout. You feel every positive emotion you can and through genuine laughter there will be tears. It’s the perfect ending to this story and as cheesy (or easy) as it may sound the best moment in the entire series, which is quite beautiful to watch.
