Catherine Cohen

Beauty and the Beats

Catherine Cohen is an agony aunt, writer, poet, podcast host, Netfl ix star and winner of 2019’s Best Newcomer Award. The cabaret comic chats to Megan Merino about trying to hold it together while attempting to have it all

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In this new era of comedy, landing a Netflix special is fast becoming a pinnacle of the craft. But securing such a deal for your debut hour is an accolade few can boast. One such performer is New York City-based cabaret comedian, actor, poet (and selfprofessed model, choreographer and dancer) Catherine Cohen. Her show The Twist . . . ? She’s Gorgeous, which picked up the illustrious Best Newcomer Award at the 2019 Fringe, was recorded for the streaming platform in 2021 and released earlier this year.

‘It was a total dream come true,’ Cohen gushes over Zoom. ‘There was a billboard in Times Square. I got to go on SethMeyers. I threw this massive party for everyone I’ve ever connected with in comedy in New York. It was a magical night,’ she says, taking a beat. ‘And then I fell into a deep depression, of course. Because I thought my whole life was gonna change. It was like, “no girl, you’re still just you living your life. But my life’s great, so why do I feel like this?” So I upped the Prozac, took a little time and now I’m back. Feeling . . . positive.’

For those familiar with Cohen’s work, this highoctane straddling of hilarity and honesty is part of the appeal. You only have to listen to a few minutes of her special (‘I suffer from depression, or as I like to call it, “crying because outside smells like the past”) or her hugely successful SeekTreatment (‘a podcast about boys, sex, fucking, dating and love’) which she hosts with her best friend, and fellow comedian, Pat Regan, to hear about her all-too relatable neurosis and obsession with success and male attention. ‘I feel like I can’t relate if someone is funny but they’re not being vulnerable. Then I don’t really care. But that’s just my taste.’

During our conversation, Cohen is in London (her ‘spiritual home’) as she squeezes in live podcast recordings and a book signing for her 2021 debut God I Feel ModernTonight:PoemsFromAGalAbout Town, before her Fringe run of work-in-progress shows, and one very special final performance of The Twist . . .? ‘The crowds here are great. People just appreciate live performance and theatricality in a way that I don’t feel they always do in the States.’ Earlier this year, she chose to perform TheTwist...? at London’s Clapham Grand, just days before the special premiered on Netflix. ‘It was just the craziest energy ever,’ she recalls, ‘but then I was like, “well, I have to do it one more time in Edinburgh”. It just felt like a cool rite of passage.’

Cohen’s final full-circle performance of The Twist . . . ? will no doubt delight Fringe audiences, as she closes the curtain on a show that beautifully captures the chaos of her twenties. ‘There’s material in there I wrote in 2016, so there are certain things that just feel so old to me,’ the 30-year-old explains. ‘I feel like in

I have a disease where I can’t fi nish a song “ ”

your early twenties everything is new and a delight. Then things stop feeling that way and then you’re like, “what else is there? What can bring me excitement and joy now that I’ve seen more and gotten older”? But I still love all of it and I love performing the songs.’

Cohen’s original songs pack in gags and catchy hooks while discussing everything from women’s clothes sizes (‘don’t understand why y’all won’t make bigger clothes’ / ‘take my money, just make a size 14’) to aspirational New York millennial tropes such as going upstate (‘I could draft tweets by a lake’).

‘I have an innate feel for what I want to do and what a good melody is,’ she says, ‘but I have a disease where I can’t finish a song. At my shows I’ll just be like, “David [her pianist], play those chords and we’ll

just see what happens”. It’s so much more fun to play around and when I’m then paired with someone who has such skill, the songs come to life.’ However when asked if she would ever consider releasing songs outwith a comedy setting, she laughs: ‘I’d be so humiliated. Imagine not having a joke to lean back on? No thank you.’

New songs, including ‘Do It For The Memoir’ and ‘I Can Make Myself Cum With My Hand’, may well be heard in Cohen’s work-in-progress show, which she builds on regularly at her weekly set in New York’s Club Cumming (Alan Cumming’s cabaret venue). ‘It took me almost five years to do The Twist . . . ? So there’s no rush to finish the next one. I don’t want to present something if I’m not like, “it’s fucking perfect”. When I came in 2019, the show was so solid. I had nothing I wanted to change. There’s still a lot to figure out with the new show. I was also such a hermit monk when I did it last time. I had to work really hard to protect my voice and stay healthy, and now I can’t wait to just do it and have fun.’

Cohen seems to be revelling in the joy of being able to perform live again, but does this ambitious cabaret queen really have it all? ‘I guess it would be nice to have a billion dollars,’ she deadpans. ‘But otherwise, what more can I need? I have amazing friends and family and I get to do this thing that I love doing. Let’s just enjoy life . . . for one second!’

Catherine Cohen: Work In Progress, 8–21 August, 9.40pm; The Twist . . . ? She’s Gorgeous, 12 August, 11.20pm; both shows at Pleasance Courtyard.