It’s been a busy few weeks for Abbi Jacobson, the actress, writer, illustrator and author. Recently calling from New York to talk about her new book, “I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities and Other Stuff,” Jacobson announced she was “in a car, on the way to shoot the last day of ‘Broad City’ ever.”
Jacobson, 34, is best known as the co-creator and co-star, with Ilana Glazer, of “Broad City,” the web series turned Comedy Central hit.
But even as she was reflecting on what it feels like to end the critically acclaimed series after five successful seasons, Jacobson was preparing to go on tour to promote her book. Among Jacobson’s stops is the Portland Book Festival on Saturday.
“It just really felt right,” Jacobson says, to end “Broad City” after five seasons. Though the final “Broad City” season will premiere Jan. 24 on Comedy Central, Jacobson and Glazer have signed a development deal with the cable channel, and the two already have post-“Broad City” projects in development.
“I Might Regret This” was inspired by a solo cross-country road trip Jacobson took in the summer of 2017. She was in an uncertain emotional state. A relationship had ended, something made even more profound because, as Jacobson writes, it represented both the first time she’d been involved with a woman, and was also the first time she’d really been in love.
“It was a hazy time,” Jacobson says, recalling her decision to drive from New York to Los Angeles. “I was really interested in challenging myself in writing more long-form, in the essay format.”
Add to that, she says, “I was very heartbroken. And I work a lot, and I was feeling this imbalance in my life. I knew that ‘Broad City’ was going to be ending, and all of these things were going to be happening. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the need to write something as much as this.”
Changing times
The book is funny, self-deprecating, honest and at times melancholy as Jacobson writes about how she developed her skills as a comedy performer and writer, as well her road-trip stops in New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and more.
Jacobson says she tried not to think about who might read the book as she was writing it, and using her own drawings.
“It’s the same with ‘Broad City,’ ” she says. “You can’t have the audience in mind when you’re making something,” though she adds, “you can in the third revision.”
Jacobson says a part of her was “writing it for my younger self,” recalling, “I always felt very much an outsider. I had only dated men, and was now dating women. The culture is shifting so rapidly with people being more open about that, and I was inspired by that.”
Thinking about how younger women adapt to cultural messages is also on Jacobson’s mind when she talks about providing the voice of Princess Bean, the rebellious royal in the Netflix animated series “Disenchantment.”
“They give me a lot of freedom when I come in to record,” Jacobson says. “They really let me change lines, and come up with new things, and make it my own, which you don’t always get to do.”
Of Bean, who is prone to following her instincts and impatient with royal protocol, Jacobson says, “I just thought it was so rad that she was like this anti-hero, and was so flawed.
“I would have been on board for anything Matt wanted me to do, but that was just such a bonus, that she’s lazy, and nonambitious, and doesn’t have her (bleep) together. This character is such an unlikely princess. I have nieces who are obsessed with Disney princesses. It will be nice when they get older, and see the other side of what a princess can be.”
Though her road trip route didn’t take her through Oregon, Jacobson’s appearance at the Portland Book Festival is hardly her first trip to the Rose City. She was a guest star in two episodes of “Portlandia,” which aired in 2017.
“I live in Brooklyn,” Jacobson says, “so it kind of has a similar vibe” to Portland.
Stand-by tickets
At the Portland Book Festival, Jacobson will be in conversation with Lindy West, the Seattle-based writer whose memoir, “Shrill,” was adapted for a Hulu TV series starring Aidy Bryant, and filmed on location in Portland this summer.
Jacobson says she’s excited about the event, and discussing “I Might Regret This.”
“I think this is a book that I would love to read,” Jacobson says. “I search out books where people are trying to figure themselves out.”
Guaranteed seating pre-orders have closed for the event with Abbi Jacobson and Lindy West, which happens at noon Saturday at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. A limited number of stand-by tickets will be available for walk-up distribution on Saturday at the Portland Book Festival box office on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, go to: https://literary-arts.org/organizer/abbi-jacobson/.
