Review: Michelle Shaughnessy, Botoxic

Shortly after greeting the audience, lightly roasting her close friends for not being in it even though they live nearby, and swiftly eviscerating the different ways in which women are treated at different weights, Michelle Shaughnessy launches into a small odyssey about the unexpected fallout of her recent laser eye surgery. Beginning with her last taste of glasses-based negging, the Sirius XM’s Top Comic finalist weaves through the surgery itself, the valium-induced post-procedure euphoria, and her efforts to chase that high. She expertly navigates an excited audience interruption about Adderall before arriving at the perfect payoff.

While the rest of Shaughnessy’s new album never quite reaches that level of sublimity, it’s still a solidly entertaining collection of anecdotes, foibles, and left field observations. With all of the self aware vanity, fragile egoism (she describes her self image as thinking she’s “the best of the garbage people”), and wit that the title would suggest, Botoxic acerbically tackles the pitfalls of modern womanhood like discount Brazilian waxes, office romances gone wrong, flattering catcalls, the diminishing returns of alleged bad boys, iPhone location sharing, and getting engaged on your birthday.

Those friends who bailed on the recording really missed out.

Botoxic was released July 17, 2020 on Howl & Roar Records
Listen to it here.