REVIEWS

What Christela Alonzo’s “Middle Classy” Has to Say about Race and Class

It’s insightful, informing, and very, very funny.

Alonzo’s love for Olive Garden, her mastery of three languages (Spanish, English, and Caucasian), and white guys with dreads, all come under comedic scrutiny in this new fifty-minute special — but these are just the openers. Pretty quickly, she dives right into the issue of racism with humor and honesty. Head-on, she addresses repressed anger: “Back then, it was okay, it was acceptable. But times change, and guess what? You can’t say that word anymore — and guess what else, you never should have.”

I appreciated her bit about turning forty and comparing herself to an iPhone 6. “I still get the job done but I have a shorter battery life.” Turning forty also launches Alonzo into talking about her birthday: This year, she got Covid for her birthday—Jan 6 — and the year before, we had an insurrection. She’s a great storyteller and a classic example of the idea that “truth is stranger, and more interesting, than fiction.”

When Alonzo segues into aging, her comedy becomes more personally relatable: “I hurt my wrist. One day I woke up, and it hurt. Didn’t do anything…