August 25, 2022
/
Mike Binder
Christina P.: Gen X Mom-Com Queen
By Abdul Basit Hashmi Standupworld staff writer
Christina Pazsitzky Segura is her full name, but she’s known in the comedy world as ‘Christina P’. Good thing, ‘cause it rolls off the tongue (and the keyboard) way easier. That means you’ve got no excuse not to type it into your search bar right now. If you don’t already know her, you’ll want to, so go ahead and do it. I’ll wait right here for you. (Don’t forget to come back.)
Christina was born on June 18th, 1976 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her parents, Hungarian immigrants, moved the family to the U.S. when she was five, and she grew up mostly in Southern California. She’s describs her childhood family life as “wackadoodle”, and talks about some of the tougher aspects: her parents’ divorce, her mother’s struggle with mental illness. Luckily—for her and for her fans—she has the gift of being able to find humor in almost any situation.
Watching Christina’s shows, you get the sense that she probably came out of the womb cracking jokes about the whole process. Her first foray into comedy was in third grade, memorizing and telling Truly Tasteless Jokes from the books of the same name. That’s got to be how she got so comfortable putting a humorous spin on subjects that a lot of comics would rather avoid in today’s climate of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”.
‘Black jokes’, ‘Jew jokes’, ‘Gay jokes’: they’re all on the menu. At times, the tension in the audience is so palpable she has to remind them that it’s just comedy, and that they can (and should) relax, laugh, and enjoy it for what it is. In that way, it is a safe space.
Her style? Some fans describe it as “tastefully vulgar”, although some might argue about the “tasteful” part. She never did grow out of bathroom humor, and she’s proud of it. She’s not afraid to do sound effects, show off her “mom bod” (she’s a mother of two boys) or laugh at her own jokes.
So, how exactly did she end up on stage displaying her muffin top, miming blow jobs and telling episiotomy stories? Professionally and academically, she was originally headed in a very different direction. She went after and obtained a degree in philosophy from the University of San Francisco in 1999.
After graduation, she made a short detour to law school, at her mother’s wishes which lasted two weeks before deciding it wasn’t for her. She started towards a graduate degree for philosophy, but left after only one semester. By the time she fully committed to pursuing a career in stand-up, she’d quit or been fired from 22 different jobs and figured at that point, it was comedy or nothing.
As with everything in the entertainment biz, it definitely wasn’t an easy path to success. She stuck it out though, finding it preferable to doing work she hated or just wasn’t good at. She credits her husband (Tom Segura, also a stand-up comic) with helping her through the grind. Christina and Tom met at a club where they were both performing and were friends for years before they finally got together. They were married in 2008—with $200 between them.
While working at MTV in the 90s as a writer and doing voice overs, she appeared on the reality series “Road Rules: Down Under” (she was also in an earlier “Road Rules” while still a university student). Her boss at MTV suggested that she do comedy, so she started out at The Groundlings (an L.A.-based comedy troupe and school). In 2001, she got her first break in stand-up at The Comedy Store in L.A. After that, there was no stopping her. She began appearing on comedy shows including “Red Light Comedy” (Showtime) and “Stand Up in Stilettos” (TV Guide). During the rise of her stand-up career, she was also busy writing for hit shows like “Chelsea Lately” and “Funniest Wins with Marion Wayans”.
She and her husband, Tom, have worked together on a number of projects. He shares her love of grown-up juvenile humor, and their similar styles make them an amazing comedic duo. They wrote and starred in a family comedy pilot for CBS which unfortunately never aired) and their podcast, “Your Mom’s House” is huge. In fact, Christina’s more famous in the podcasting world than she is in the stand-up world. They’ve been co-hosting the fan favorite since 2010; in 2012 it earned them a nomination for “Best Comedy Podcast” in the first Stitcher Awards. With the success of “Your Mom’s House”, the couple were able to launch their own podcast production company, YMH Studios.
On their show, they and their guests talk about a bit of everything: current events, fan-submitted video clips, and, of course, each other. Even when performing solo shows, they are frequently the butt of each other’s jokes—and they can be merciless. Somehow, they can roast each other to charred remains and stay happily married for many years.
In podcasting, Christina even found a use for that dusty philosophy degree—she hosted another show called “That’s Deep, Bro”, which takes the serious and adds a good dose of hilarious. Then there’s “Where My Moms At”, where the topic is all things related to motherhood. You can listen to “Your Mom’s House” and “Where My Moms At” almost anywhere you can find podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. “That’s Deep, Bro” is a little harder to track down, but you can find some episodes on YouTube.
Back to the stand-up. She’s got three Netflix specials. They put her in more living rooms than ever before, and they’re the next best thing to attending a live show—you don’t want to miss these. The first, “Christina P. Mother Inferior” —a comedic treatise on motherhood, aging and her own childhood, was released in October 2017 and garnered rave reviews. She followed up with a half-hour special in 2018. (It’s episode #6 of the first season of “The Degenerates”.) Her latest Netflix special, “Mom Genes”, came out in 2022. You can probably get a good idea of the subject matter from the punny title. In addition to mom-hood, mom bodies, and mom pants, she takes a crack at millennials and younger generations from a Gen X perspective.
Still wanting more? Well, with all this going on she’s also managed to produce two one-hour comedy albums: “It’s Hard Being a Person” (2011) and “Man of the Year” (2015). And, of course, she tours, taking her stand-up routines all over the country,
Her latest tour is underway right now, with dates through the fall. Tickets are available on her website, Christina P. Online.
PLEASE SIGN UP OUR NEWSLETTER. THANKS!!
