Jennifer Rawlings Parents 5 Kids and Performs in War-Zones

In this summer edition of Parenting is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg catches up with stand-up comic, filmmaker, and war-zone performer Jennifer Rawlings. Jennifer reflects on her years raising five kids while performing for U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sarajevo—often leaving behind toddlers and pull-ups for flak vests and flatbed stages. She shares how her youngest son, now a film professional, co-directed her new special I Only Smoke in War Zones, which captures her real-life experiences performing comedy amid explosions, basketball-court gigs with no mics, and chow-hall sets surrounded by barbed wire. Ophira and Jennifer get real about the guilt moms carry, the emotional labor of parenting adult children, and the horror of seeing your grown kid’s partner move into your basement. Jennifer recalls being handed a Kevlar vest mid-set as mortars went off and jokes that her kids were so feral when she returned from 30 days in Iraq, she wasn’t even sure she’d been missed. They also talk about how her work in war zones exposed her to young mothers and children missing limbs, fueling a deeper drive to tell women’s stories both on stage and in film.

And yes—her son did call her in Afghanistan just to complain his brother ate all the Cheez-Its.

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