Not just a squirrel but a tomcat, a seagull, a cow, and a stand-up comedienne. Such are the many personae of Betsy Salkind, visually a dead-ringer for MTV celebrity Kennedy, stylistically an offshoot of Lily Tomlin, Reno, and Andrea Martin. Salkind ties all her bits together with an animal theme, be it an unfunny cat that complains about second-class treatment or a very amusing squirrel that nibbles a giant piece of matzoh down to its last farfel.
A Duplex “Star of Tomorrow” winner, Salkind obviously has the talent and the punchlines (“I recently became a Christian Scientist; it was the only health plan I could afford”); what she needs is the pacing and the seasoning. Her pauses between jokes always stretch far past the moment of comfort, and her animal impressions (seagull excepted) really aren’t that funny.
Before tackling this kind of cabaret, Salkind needs to stand in front of a brick wall in front of a hundred drunken strangers and do this material a hundred more times, at which point her timing will be automatic and her best material will naturally snuff out the weak links. She’ll also be able to make stronger written pieces (like the cow who’s had a zillion cancer operations paid for by insurance -- after her health plan wouldn’t spring for the initial tests that could have diagnosed the illnesses in the first place) work better than they currently do.
