Just Call Me Ripley
Just Call Me Ripley (2019)
Created, starring and written by: Jake Noll
Falling in love is harder when you’re finding yourself – and when others can’t seem to locate you.
Jake Noll’s Just Call Me Ripley is a comedy series about Ripley, a Chicagoan whose gender and sexuality confounds everyone around them and especially themselves.
One thing Ripley is clear on though is how much they want to date Krista (Rivkah Reyes) the handyperson. With bright and colorful montages and artful animations, we see Ripley fantasize over Krista, giving the series a romantic anchor, juxtaposed with starkly serious flashback of Ripley’s relationship with their ex-husband.
In pursuit of self, Ripley dates poets and corporate types, poly couples and horny enbies, turning Ripley on or off. The series is buoyant romp through Chicago’s queer community, where Ripley goes on terrible dates or falls too quickly and processes their anxiety with a diverse cast of some stellar Chicago actors. “It’s a very Chicago-centric show. So I also love celebrating the talent of the city. We have a ton of comedian friends and coworkers that we'd love to get involved.”
Jake’s goal was to use comedy to show how gender and sexuality are complex and intertwined. Too often we talk about this in scolding tweet threads or serious essays, which are not the best forms to enlighten and inspire.
“I decided to do this project because it achieves what I try to do with my standup, which is to make difficult subjects more comfortable for people to consume and to sort of feel some catharsis with. I love to have catharsis through laughter and that I think this project really goes for,” Jake said.
Jake is a product of Chicago’s vibrant improv scene, arguably the best in the country. So they enlisted Second City Touring Company director Cassie Ahiers to direct. “I really do think that comedy is one of the best tools to talk about difficult subjects or things that maybe we're more divided on because it is such a safe way to allow people to have these conversations who might not be open to that conversation otherwise.”
Just Call Me Ripley appears to argue that we find ourselves through our relationship with others, whether a neighbor (played by Work in Progress’ Abby McEnany), lovers, those we crush or who crush on us .