Mary Beth Barone hopes you learn something about yourself after her new show. “Galaxy Brain,” her first Netflix special, introduces the world to her Chihuahua-mix Pinky, goes deep on those emergency phones on college campuses and presents viewers with the chance to figure out “if they’re an ‘oh my god’ or an ‘oh f–k.’”
“That’s going to be so fun,” she says.
“Galaxy Brain,” out Tuesday, is the latest milestone for the 35-year-old, who was named one of Comedy Central’s Up Next in 2019 and has bloomed in popularity in the years since, thanks to her podcasts with fellow comedian and best friend Benito Skinner, her breakout role on Skinner’s Amazon Prime series “Overcompensating” and a much-lauded turn as Golden Globes red carpet host earlier this year. A Netflix special is only fitting.
Mary Beth Barone
Ryan Williams/WWD
Barone made “Galaxy Brain,” which was shot in March at NYU’s Skirball Center, for her loyal fans of women and queer people.
“And then I think straight guys who want to participate, you have the opportunity to learn a lot,” she adds. “I welcome you to the conversation and I hope we can break new ground together.”
Barone took some time off from stand-up while filming the first season of “Overcompensating” to focus on the show and her character, Grace. Toward the end of shooting, she began her “Pillow Talk” tour, during which she began crafting the “Galaxy Brain” hour. Buyers from several streamers came to see the tour, and by last August she’d received word that Netflix was ready to move ahead.
“I think taking a break was really good for me because when you’re just sort of treading the boards all the time, you almost start to take it for granted. And I love stand-up so much so sometimes it’s good to let it go, miss it and then return,” she says. “With everything you do, you grow as a performer. So I think having even more confidence on stage and feeling like I can lean even more into who I really am — because there’s not much of a difference between the person that you see on stage and the person that I am in real life — sometimes playing a completely different character actually makes you return to yourself even more.”
Playing someone like Grace is especially informative.
“I love playing Grace because I feel like she says the quiet part out loud without saying a word,” Barone says. “And that’s something we could all aspire to do a little more of.”
Mary Beth Barone
Ryan Williams/WWD
The second season of “Overcompensating” is due out later this year. She swears she doesn’t know when yet, but will be shouting it from the rooftops once she does.
“I’m sure whenever you return to a season two, it feels easier to just really drop back into the characters. But I’m also in the writers’ room on the show. So watching the stuff that we were pitching and that Benny was writing come to life, it’s such a gratifying experience and it’s so much fun,” she says. “I am really proud of this season and I think what Benny did is so unexpected, but also a lot of fan service as well. There’s more romance this season. It’s a bit nastier, to quote Benny himself.”
Ahead, there will be more episodes of “Ride,” her podcast with Skinner since 2023, and a new tour planned for next year. She has a few other projects coming up that she can’t quite talk about yet, “which I know makes it seem like I’m trying to sound cooler than I am,” she says. “And you can put that in the article.”
Mary Beth Barone
Ryan Williams/WWD
