Jenny Slate Isn’t Holding Back Anymore

It hasn’t even been a year since Jenny Slate was at the 95th Academy Awards, celebrating the two Oscar-nominated films in which she featured: Everything Everywhere All at Once and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (which she also produced). And yet here she is, back with a new comedy special, Seasoned Professional—a whirlwind journey through childbirth, the consequences of lactose intolerance on a seventh grade orchestra trip, and her parasocial relationship with her therapist, Pamela. (It’s out now on Prime Video.)

Like much of Slate’s other work, Seasoned Professional is as raw and personal as it is funny. She recalls, among other things, the time her (former) agents booked her an audition for the role of Pennywise, the demonic clown in It. While she laughed it off at the time, Slate spends a portion of the special revealing just how hurt she was by the experience, even releasing cathartic screams into the ether. “It’s an aggregate of that feeling—of all the tiny little times that I have held something in because I didn’t want to be a problem,” she tells Vogue. 

Slate is of the belief that being chill is a myth, and that regarding it as a social ideal does us all a disservice. “We shouldn’t feel ashamed of the ways that we try to care for ourselves,” she says. Now, as she models an image for her young daughter, Ida, she’s done quieting her feelings to avoid causing friction. “It’s just not my job anymore.”

Vogue recently spoke with the comedian about reliving hurt feelings onstage, feeling good in a tuxedo, and being brave in the name of love. 

Vogue: I was so interested in the outfit you chose for the show. How did you decide to riff on the the tuxedo?

Jenny Slate: The tuxedo is an ensemble that you wear when you’re receiving an honor, or getting married, or just a really fancy person in the past. And, I guess, a magician. It’s evocative to me of Judy Garland and tap dancing and other things that are classy. I think that one of the things that many people work with is that feeling of imposter syndrome, like, But I’m not the real deal of this or that; I’m not the one that represents being a seasoned professional. I really want to celebrate my life as it is now, and that I’m able to express myself and where I am in my career—that I’ve been doing this for a while, and I am a seasoned professional.