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I'm not a trained therapist, but I'm good enough and I'm smart enough, and Gosh Darn it, my readers like me, so I'm gonna write a really really good review this time.

With apologies to Stuart Smalley, we always appreciate Lisa Nova's take on life and on the behavior of some of our odd friends and family members out there. We enjoy how she pokes fun at them with her serious way and with her tongue firmly in cheek. ("I do not need to vomit to feel good about myself today."

LisaNova has got a knack for making her points clear in her acting and very dry humor without ever having to push it in our face. Just enough so that we recognize her portrayals of the people we've all known -- and perhaps wish we didn't. If all it took was wishing it true then Donald Trump wouldn't need a massive comb-over and my Ferrari wouldn't look like Volkswagen.

Maybe these people aren't in any 12-step programs, but perhaps they should be. LisaNova captures the odd peeps who are creeping along that line between being way too sincere for their own good and being a tad insane. She takes it to the edge and most of the time steps over, then finds herself and comes back. Whew.. "We lost ya there for a minute Lisa. Now wipe that cake off your face and get back to work."

Yes, we've known people like this. Actually, I think we've seen them in the mirror.

If you're like me you see yourself in Lisa's characters. "I'm gonna stick to my diet and lose weight and and ... as long as there's no cakes or cookies in the house ... or in the coffee shop where I buy my coffee ... or anywhere within eyesight on my daily routine." Come on now, who among us hasn't eaten an entire cake in one sitting -- or standing over the sink -- because "this is the last of the sweets, really, no seriously, and tomorrow the diet starts in earnest. Seriously."?

Are there any 12-step programs to help one stop giving oneself affirmations? I know there must be, and if there are, I can join it and be successful and stop my constant affirmations. Yes I can, I know I can. I can and I will. OK, enough about me. On with the show.

Labels: affirmations, aitkins, comedy, exercise, karma, LisaNova, mad TV, madTV, sketch comedy, the paradox of choice, The Secret