Maya Rudolph & Gretchen Lieberum Bring Princess To Netflix Is A Joke Festival

Maya Rudolph has brought things full circle. Back in the early-mid 2000’s, Rudolph’s Beyoncé impression joined forces with Fred Armisen’s Prince impression for The Prince Show on Saturday Night Live. Rudolph has always been a big Prince fan, and in the last few years, she started turning that love into a live show.

Together with Gretchen Lieberum - whom she has known for 30 years - they have formed Princess. Princess is a Prince cover band, where the two take the stage and put on unarguably the greatest celebration of Prince’s iconic music that you’ll ever see. The fact that it’s Rudolph and her distinctive comedy voice at the center of it makes it all the better.

The crowd gathered at the Hollywood Palladium Sunday night as part of Netflix Is A Joke Festival were all Prince fans as well. All decked out in purple - some even going above and beyond and dressing up as Prince - the anticipation from the crowd was enough to fill up the room before they ever stepped foot onstage. Once they did, the energy was infectious. This was the place to be if you were looking to have a good time on a Sunday night in Hollywood.

The show featured all of your favorites from the Prince catalog, including Let’s Go Crazy, Controversy, Head, Little Red Corvette, Jack U Off, Nasty Girl, When You Were Mine, The Beautiful Ones, Erotic City, D.M.S.R., and Darling Nikki. For the song Cool, Rudolph and Lieberum evoked their own 15-minute comedy bit in the midst of it, dragging the song out as far as possible.

There were also some fun surprise guests that entered through a door on the side of the stage. First, there were comedians, such as Ron Funches and Joel Kim Booster. Neither stayed onstage very long, but instead told a quick anecdote. Perhaps the biggest surprise was when Beck came through the door. He joined Princess for a fantastic rendition of Raspberry Beret. The three surprise guests rejoined the stage for 1999 later in the show.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Prince tribute without a little Purple Rain. That song became the encore, but there was an extra surprise for that one. Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman - who started playing with Prince in the 1980’s - came out to join Rudolph and Lieberum in playing the song. It was well worth the wait, as it became a one-of-a-kind experience you’ll never find elsewhere.