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You might recognize her from Comedy Central skits on YouTube, Hatched NYC skits, or from Late Night with Seth Meyers. She is a five-foot brunette with big eyes and native appearance, but you wouldn’t expect what comes out of her mouth. It’s wit that bites — in a girly way.
It’s Saturday afternoon in cold December. I see a group of cameramen from a distance, and an elf. The elf is decked out in red and green from head to toe. I head towards them, and a cameraman asks me if I want to be in their comedy sketch. I agree, and the elf asks me, “Santa’s always saying ho, ho, ho. Who are Santa’s three ‘hoe’s?” I was speechless. That was Jenny Gorelick.
I eventually meet with Gorelick at the Shade Bar and ask her the same question. She now responds with, “He doesn’t know their names.” At the bar, she orders an iced coffee. She wears a black dress and little tan booties, with her hair put together nicely. She likes to joke about dating, sex, sports, partying, movies, T.V. shows, and piercings. She has dreams of making her own production company, all while acting in the work she does. And she’s doing it all like an “energizer bunny,” her boyfriend says. Full of energy on stage, but then crashes on the sofa when it’s over.
Gorelick grew up in New Jersey, always knowing she was going to end up in New York City. As a kid, she would visit New York City to see a lot of Broadway shows. She was passionate about acting and did theater — thinking that she might become an actress. “I was always performing and very extroverted,” Gorelick says. She did improv at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Then, Gorelick moved to Reckless Theatre, where she would make full-length horror, action, and rom-com movies. “I learned a lot about what is funny and what my limits are by being in this open creative environment, doing improv,” Gorelick says. “That was a good starting place for me.”
In high school, she had her mind set on becoming a Broadway producer, and was involved in after-school theater. She went on to attend Brown University, where she studied theater and business, and was on the school’s improv team. “That’s really what opened doors for me [in comedy],” Gorelick says. “I loved doing that. It was kind of like being a celebrity on campus. The improv shows would have 300 people come see them, and it was so much fun. I didn’t know I was funny like that until then.”
With her newfound love for improv, her ambition of becoming a Broadway producer didn’t last long. “Somewhere in my twenties I was like, ‘f*** this, I want to perform,” Gorelick says. “I want to do comedy. I want to be the talent. I don’t want to be behind the scenes anymore.”
Gorelick moved to New York City in 2015 and worked as a stage manager for the Tony Awards, where she worked her way up to becoming a company operations manager for seven years, running the day-to-day business of the show. On top of this, she did improv on the side. “I was doing improv because I loved it, but I didn’t see it as a viable career path,” Gorelick says. “But then I started to see how my improv was letting me get auditions. I booked some commercials, and I was like, ‘oh my god, people are telling me I’m good at this.’”
Gorelick was casted for Improv Everywhere’s “Subway Sweet Sixteen” in 2017, as well as for Late Night with Seth Meyers’s “The Wrong Take” series in 2019. In 2022, she was casted in an episode of the Sex and the City revival And Just Like That….
“The best day of my life was when I was on set for And Just Like That…,” Gorelick says. In the episode she appeared in, as “Fan #2,” Gorelick acted opposite Cynthia Nixon and Michael Patrick King. “[King] was so kind to me,” Gorelick says. “[He] told me I was doing a great job, and I was feeling very funny and comfortable on set. That’s huge.”.
Gorelick now lives in Brooklyn with two best friends, Mckenna and Mo, who are both actresses as well. “New York City is my favorite city in the entire world,” Gorelick says. “I love living here.” Gorelick has traveled to L.A. for her comedy performances, but she thinks the comedy is better in New York City, finding most people come here for their comedy careers. However, because of that, comedy in New York City is competitive. “You are not going to get booked if you are not a talented comedian,” Gorelick says. “I feel like it’s pressure in that way, but it’s good — it makes the comedy way better.” Gorelick wouldn’t mind being called to L.A. for gigs, but would prefer to stay based in New York City.
***
It’s Sunday night at The Stand, a mid-sized venue in Manhattan. The lights are dimmed, and the bar is spacious with high ceilings and large windows. Gorelick is talking to other comedians, wearing bright yellow pants, sipping a glass of rosé. Gorelick is chatting with Zack Signore, her co-host for the show she is about to perform, which is called “Hard Candy.” The two are going back and forth about the jokes they want to tell in their stand-up sets. “I have a big splinter in my goddamn ass,” Signore says. “That’s probably what I’m going to talk about.”
After asking them how they met, they both say they were “set up.” For clarity, I ask if it was for a date. Signore enthusiastically answers, “Well, I’m gay.” Gorelick laughs.
Before the show, Gorelick is taking notes in her notebook. Her notebook is filled with bullet points and some paragraphs — they’re all about the jokes she wants to perform.
Just as the show begins, Gorelick and Signore walk on stage together and introduce themselves. Signore then elaborates on his injury. “It’s a woodchip deep in my ass,” Signore says.
Other comedians take the spotlight making jokes about race, until Signore comes back on stage soon enough — to talk, again, about his ass, which is still in pain. Gorelick laughs and snorts from the audience.
When Gorelick comes on stage, she jokes about New Jersey girls. “You can take the girl out of Jersey,” she says, “but you cannot take the ring out of her belly button.” Gorelick says this last bit while leaning her hips to one side. “It’s deep in there, it’s so deep.” Most of the audience members laugh.
“Do we love our vibrators?” Gorelick asks. Some people in the back say “yes,” but not enough to Gorelick’s liking. “We need new vibrators then. We should be screaming! I heard that it is emasculating for some guys, and I don’t get it. If Lebron James is on your team, are you mad that he scored more points than you, or are you happy that you won?”
***
“Women have told me about their vibrators, and that it’s helping them during sex,” Gorelick says, sipping her coffee. “If I can help more women orgasm during sex through my comedy, then I’ve done it.”
“Jenny is a girl who can get it done,” Signore says. “I want a piece of her.”
Signore appreciates Gorelick’s persona and reliability. “I love her girly girl perspective, she’s so uniquely herself and it’s something that you don’t often see,” Signore says. “It’s amazing to work with her. If you want to get something done, she’s an amazing person to have on your team.”
Gorelick says the best part of stand-up is what she gets from the audience. “I love making people laugh, especially when you find the perfect punchline for your joke,” she says. “I love it when something I wrote and said is relatable to an audience of strangers and they’re like, ‘oh my god, that really made me laugh.’”
Gorelick is currently an event producer at Jaffe Management by day, and a comedian, actress and producer by night. “You can’t do comedy as your full-time job unless you ‘made it,’ and when you make it, you’ll have comedy shows every night. But I’m not at the point in my career where that’s the case,” Gorelick says. “I’m making money doing this, not enough to sustain myself, but it’s a more reasonable career choice than I thought initially. And I’ve been working at it ever since – living two lives.”
Erik Scott, Gorelick’s boyfriend for a year-and-a-half, is a comedian as well. He was impressed with her career when he first met her. “I was very blown away with how much she had going on,” Scott says. “At the time, she was a producer at the Tony Awards, and it was crazy how someone is trying to do the same thing I am trying to do, but is successful at this other normal life. It’s crazy, it’s like she’s doing two people’s worth of a life and pretty well.” Scott and Gorelick do sketches together on YouTube.
“Working with Jenny is great,” Scott says. “I edit and do all the video work for the stuff we make together, but after a while, that is a lot for me to do, and Jenny was able to teach herself and assist in edits. It’s nice to have a built-in creative partner.”
Scott wants to be a touring comedian like Adam Sandler, while Gorelick wants more to do with production, acting, and comedy, like Judd Apatow. “I think about Judd Apatow a lot. He is good to his family and colleagues and helps his friends get their projects made,” Gorelick says. “The dream would be to have my own production company. I would like to be front facing in the things I’m writing, but I’m also happy to take a backseat and produce things for people. I would love to open doors for myself and other people.”
And Gorelick has a plan to get there. “I need to establish myself as the talent first if I want to perform in the things I’m making, because if I do it the other way around, then I’ll never get to perform again.”
***
It’s Tuesday Night at Caveat, a small venue in the Lower East Side. The lights are dimmed and it’s not too crowded. Music turns up, then down, signaling the start of the play Gorelick wrote and acts in, called “Billy and The Situation.”
It is a pop-culture-influenced play about two controversial figures: Billy McFarland, the businessman whose financial crimes related to his infamous luxury music event, Fyre Festival, led to him being convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to six years in prison, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, who appeared in six seasons of MTV’s The Jersey Shore before being convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to eight months in prison. For four months, both New Jersey natives were locked up in the same federal prison, and the play depicts the two as (hypothetical) cellmates.
Gorelick, who plays McFarland, walks on stage emulating a man. Head held tall, frowning, lips pursed. Gabby Bryan, who plays “The Situation,” walks across the stage with swag. Bryan and Gorelick have their orange prison jumpsuit on and hair pulled back. Bryan stands a few feet above Gorelick’s five-foot stature.
The play begins with a background video Gorelick produced, explaining the premise of the play and what happened to McFarland and “the Situation” that brought them to jail.
Bryan busts out her New Jersey accent — which she says she’s worked on perfecting for many years, for the purpose of making fun of her native Jersey Shore — and talks into the prison’s 25-cent phone. Gorelick is doing the same, talking like a tough guy. “F***ing Christ,” Bryan says when the phone line cuts out and more money needs to be inserted. Gorelick does the same.
When McFarland and “The Situation” are cellmates, the two introduce themselves and explain how they got to jail.
“Have you ever heard of the Fyre Festival?” McFarland asks.
“What is that? Like an Aztec thing?” “The Situation” responds.
“What? No.”
The scene transitions feature songs like “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” (in reference to “The Situation’s” performance to the song on Dancing with the Stars), and Zedd’s “Beautiful Now” (a hit at the time). The relationship between “The Situation” and McFarland becomes close when McFarland receives a flier calling for him to prepare for a talent show with his cellmate. “The Situation” confesses he is nervous to do the talent show, and admits something from his time on The Jersey Shore.
“I was drunk on season 11,” ‘The Situation’ says.
“You were drunk during ‘Boom Boom Pow’?” McFarland responds.
“I’ve been drunk every time I’ve ever danced. I don’t think I could do this sober.”
When the two eventually do the talent show, McFarland and “The Situation” dance and sing on stage beneath disco lights. McFarland asks the audience to sing along and bump their fists to the beat of the music. Everyone is fist bumping. McFarland then comes off stage and into the crowd, high fiving everyone while running around the venue.
The relationship between the McFarland and “The Situation” characters gets even closer when “The Situation” opens up about his wife, Lauren, breaking up with him. “The Situation” punches a pillow in front of McFarland — the two burst out of character laughing, until they can collect themselves and get back in character.
During the more emotional parts of the play, when McFarland and “The Situation” become close, diary entries of McFarland’s play in voiceover.
***
Gorelick loves writing and performing her play Billy and “The Situation.” “My favorite thing is posting my own show because I love creating the environment, and I like to use PowerPoint and sound cues,” Gorelick said. Gorelick likes variety shows. “I prefer to do shows that have more variety. To host and produce my show and get to do whatever kind of comedy I want.”
“My favorite show of Jenny’s to watch is her play ‘Billy and The Situation’” Scott says. “You can tell they’re having fun, and you feel stuff at the end. It’s a comedy play, but then you get punched in the gut with emotion.”
Scott, being a comedian himself, can appreciate Gorelick’s skills when it comes to comedy and production. “I think Jenny is excellent as a host,” Scott says. “She’s very good at crowd work. You can tell [it’s] from her improv background. She’s quick on her feet and it’s fun to watch her.”
“I’m having the best time doing ‘Billy and The Situation” Bryan says. “I think Jenny and I have an incredible rhythm, and we work great together. We are kind of drastically different, and that makes for a really exciting show.”
Gorelick is now getting a taste of her dream. “I’m going to Edinburgh, Scotland, this summer to perform ‘Billy and The Situation,’ and I’m excited about that,” Gorelick says. “I don’t think I ever imagined that I would be touring the world and going abroad to do something that I wrote.”