The Rainbow Connection Comedy Tour is a new, full-spectrum standup comedy tour from the creator of Stand Out: The National Queer Comedy Search. Touring the Midwest this week (kicking off tonight in Chicago), the shows will be headlined by Los Angeles-based comedian Casey Ley, hosted by Adam Guerino, and featuring out comedians Marla Depew, Dina Nina Martinez and Rachel McCartney. In preparation for the tour, the ladies discussed their inspirations, memorable moments and why Cameron Esposito should add Comedic Sensei to her resume.
Marla Depew is the co-producer and cast member of Just Dickin’ Around, a women’s comedy collective that produces women-laden, queer-friendly comedy shows, and the founder and producer of Laughs In The Lounge, a queer-friendly monthly showcase in Chicago. Finding inspiration in Carol Burnett, she describes her comedic persona as a throwback to the old-fashioned yuk-yuk vibe inspired by her first comedy loves. Depew blends sharp observations that challenge conventional thinking when waxing witty about being the B in GLBT saying, “There’s a lot of misinformation/misunderstanding/blatant denial of bisexuality so I especially love telling my bi joke in an attempt to combat some of that.”
AfterEllen.com: When did you first know you wanted to do comedy?
Marla Depew: Comedy was my defense mechanism and way to deal with a less-than-great childhood. As long as I was making people laugh, they weren’t yelling at me or telling me I was a terrible person. I remember being five or six and scream-laughing while watching old Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin matinees. I also loved Don Knots and Dom DeLuise, and everything Carol Burnett did.
AE: I recently read the comment, “Women can be a lot of great things, but rarely funny.” Do you think addressing the “Are women funny” argument is passé?
MD: I get tired of the question: Are women funny? because I think that’s insulting and ridiculous. But if people want to actually have a sincere conversation about why there are less women in comedy (and in many professional areas) and get to the root of the whys, then I’m down for that discussion. I see the number of women in comedy rising, particularly in Chicago. I think a lot of the increasing numbers in Chicago can be traced back to Cameron Esposito, who was troubled by the dearth of women in the comedy world so much so that she started a class called Feminine Comique. Fem Com is a course (now taught by the hilarious Kelsie Huff) that teaches women to construct jokes, figure out their unique voice, and support the fuck out of each other. I took it with Cameron in 2009 and have been loving standup ever since.
AE: What part of touring are you most excited about?
MD: I think my fellow Chicagoan and Rainbow Connection tourmate Rachel McCartney is amazingly hilarious-her stuff is so smart, and she keeps coming up with more and more! She’s a wellspring of great jokes.
AE: What else are you working on?
MD: I am in the zygote stages of writing a one-woman show about my dad, who was a right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalist who later got dementia and died of Parkinson’s disease. It’s going to be a comedy.
Dina Nina Martinez is a standup comedian and actor from LA who currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin. Her signature blend of disarming sass and charm has been featured in comedy festivals and multiple world-class comedy venues including LA Pride, The Chicago Women’s Funny Festival, LA’s The Comedy Store and Chicago’s Zanies Comedy Club. She is the creator and host of Madison’s first and only queer comedy show Alphabet Soup, The D Word podcast, and the forthcoming The Dina Martinez Show. Though LA was cute and she’s certainly got fabulousness to spare, Martinez’s long-term goals are to settle down and be a soccer mom.
AE: When did you first know you wanted to do comedy?
Dina Martinez: I’ve always hosted cabaret and drag shows but when I transitioned I realized that I hated all that make up and duct tape and that I’d rather just wear a muumuu and Chucks and tell jokes.
AE: Do you have a specific memory of coming out on stage?
DM: I don’t really discuss coming out specifically, but I sort of come out to each crowd when I’m on stage. It’s really amazing to be able to share this intimate part of me on stage and have the audience, especially hetero-normative crowds, actually “get me.”
AE: Do you feel a responsibility to educate the general public on the finer points of being a queer woman of comedy?
DM: Absolutely! I wouldn’t talk about dating and the crazy experiences I go through with my family and people around me if I didn’t want to educate people. It’s one of the best things about doing what I do.
AE: Having recently read a comment that said, “Women can be a lot of great things, but rarely funny,” do you think addressing the “Are women funny?” argument is passé?
DM: I feel like there’s an incredible bias against women across the board, especially queer and trans women. My favorite thing about comedy is the women I know and work with. I think they’re some of the funniest people in the world. Chicks are funny, get over it!
AE: What was the most momentous moment within your comedy career? Or your most memorable show perhaps?
DM: My most memorable moment was when I was on my first tour. We had a date in Dallas, TX, which is near my home town. I got to the venue and my sister was all, “Um, Mom is here!” I heart dropped out of my chest! Not only my Southern Baptist mother, but my aunt, cousins, and some people I went to high school with were all in this room…listening to me talkin’ about some pretty edgy stuff! God bless ’em! It was uncomfortable, and challenging and AMAZING!
AE: What are you working on?
DM: So LA, but I’ve got a pilot script that is almost ready to pitch!
Rachel McCartney is an out standup comedian living in Chicago. She is a cast member of 100 Proof Comedy and has performed in Queer Comedy at Zanies and Chigaygo at the Laugh Factory. Local legend Peter-john Byrnes has called her “Chicago’s foremost grammar comedian,” which is a distinction she plans to have carved into her headstone.
AE: When did you first know you wanted to do comedy?
Rachel McCartney: Shortly after graduating college. I had loved standup comedy before that, but I never thought of it as something I could actually do. That changed one day when I was watching standup videos on YouTube and stumbled onto some from Chicago’s independent scene. I didn’t end up Googling open mics for another few months, but the seed was planted.
AE: Do you have a specific memory of coming out on stage?
RM: I have a coming out joke, and a couple of gay jokes that follow it. Those jokes are integral to my act, but in general, I don’t think being queer is integral to my comedic perspective. I could be wrong, because you never exactly know what shapes your worldview how, but I feel like most of my weirdness has nothing to do with my sexuality, or even the feelings of otherness caused by it.
AE: Do you feel a responsibility to educate the general public on the finer points of being a queer woman of comedy?
RM: I have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for queer comedians who draw upon their experiences to educate the public. Marla Depew has a hilarious bit illustrating the absurdity of bisexual erasure, and I think there’s a huge social value in doing material like that.
That said, I’m uncomfortable, both politically and artistically, with the idea of it being an obligation. I didn’t mention my sexuality in my act for months near the beginning, and that wasn’t because I was afraid-I just didn’t have anything funny to say about it. Now I do have a few gay jokes, but I don’t consider any of them to be particularly educational. They’re just standard misdirectional contrivances with”gay”‘ as the subject matter. It wouldn’t fit in my act to be earnest about being queer because I’m not really earnest at all. I think as a general rule, it can be great when art serves a social purpose, but to require it to is to confine it.
AE: Having recently read a comment that said, “Women can be a lot of great things, but rarely funny,” do you think addressing the “Are women funny?” argument is passé?
RM: I don’t think that talking about underrepresentation is passé. And I think that any time people appeal to unity to shut down discussion, that’s a sign the status quo is not actually just. Beyond that, my thoughts are complicated. I think it’s a serious problem that women are underrepresented, and there’s no doubt in my mind that sexism is responsible. But it’s hard to determine to what extent it’s operating through the social dynamics of a particular comedy scene or industry vs. through broader cultural messages.
I think the single most effective way to make an environment more women-friendly is to have more women in it. That sounds like a chicken-or-the-egg problem, but when Cameron Esposito was still in Chicago she found a way around it by creating an all-female standup class and encouraging its students to go to mainstream rooms.
AE: What’s next for you?
RM: 100 Proof Comedy is currently on hiatus, but it’s coming back on September 8. I’m really looking forward to working on that show. I’m also an assistant producer of Brass Chuckles, Tamale Sepp‘s monthly multidisciplinary comedy show, which will begin its third season this October. I’m just going to keep working on my act and hope that good things continue to come.
Tickets are still available for The Rainbow Connection Comedy Tour in Chicago (August 26 at Zanies Comedy Club), Madison (August 29 at Plan B) and St. Paul (August 30 at Camp Bar).
