The Power Vested In Me by Maria DeCotis

**SPECIAL TAPING**

Have you ever felt threatened when someone shows you their engagement ring? Or been to a wedding and thought, “these people should NOT be getting married?” Maria DeCotis has too, except she’s the one marrying them. Drawing from her real-life experience as a professional wedding officiant, DeCotis delivers an hour of stand-up and musical comedy about the performance of happiness, the institution of marriage, and the power dynamics embedded in modern romance. With razor-sharp wit, original music, and fearless storytelling, she examines gender, societal expectations, sex robots, turning 30, and her unique perspective on legalizing love.

It’s a darkly funny excavation of emotional power dynamics, social conditioning, and the ways people convince themselves and each other that everything is fine. Praised for her “endless intellectual curiosity” and “razor-sharp wit” that is “both hilarious and thought-provoking,” DeCotis dissects the subtle absurdities of gender, intimacy, and the performance of happiness.

Directed by Emmy Award-winner Ryan Cunningham (Broad City, Ziwe, Sugar Daddy), and produced by Amy Boland (I Don't Trust Adults, The Cigarette Club). During her wildly successful Edinburgh Fringe debut, she was featured in Playbill and The Scotsman said, “DeCotis is the best new American stand-up I’ve seen since Michelle Wolf. Do whatever you can to see her because the next chance you get she’ll be starring in her own Netflix special. She's seriously funny and seriously that good.” Her show was named one of the top Edinburgh Fringe Shows by EuroNews, nominated for the Off West End Award and received a number of outstanding reviews!