An Interview with Katharyn Henson | Mumble Comedy

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An Interview with Katharyn Henson

August 3, 2023August 3, 2023 yodamo
2023

Hello Katharyn, can you tell us where are you from & where are you living today?I was born in Reno, Nevada, spent most of my life in New York City and I currently live in London by way of Australia.
What are your first memories as a performer?This may not be the answer you expect nor is it very funny but I would say my first memory as a performer is from when I was a kid with the “and action” moment being the shock of my dad leaving suddenly and sort of realizing I just had to be ok so I started acting like I was. This performance continued through a few notable harrowing one-woman-show-esque events in my teenage years and as I ran amok in my version of the roaring 20’s up until I started stand-up and extended the performing to an actual stage.

How did you get into comedy?People seemed to already think I did stand up because I felt uncomfortable at parties so I would just tell stories to make people laugh and ease myself into social situations. I finally decided to try it when I broke up with a guy I had been dating who notably looked like a rejected cast member of Grease and who was ultimately looking for someone to be a wife and have his baby because he scoffed at the idea of me doing stand up when I mentioned it and I wanted to try it as an attempt to reclaim whatever version of myself I lost in that relationship.

Who are your comedy icons?To be honest, I don’t watch stand up in my spare time. I did see the Richard Pryor special where he made the fact he lit himself on fire while smoking crack relatable to a room full of people and I would say I have likely always set the bar at that for my own stand up. I think The Larry Sanders Show is the greatest comedy sitcom and, as far as careers go, Garry Shandling left few stones unturned but was also seemingly never at peace. The guys who did The Venture Brothers are also up there for me.

Can you tell us about the New York comedy scene & it’s difference from that of London?I figure a lot has changed with the emergence of having a presence on the internet as being a real part of what it means to do comedy anywhere anymore but, when I started in NYC, you had to be relatively scrappy and really want to do this because you are considered incredibly lucky to be performing for no pay for 5 minutes while the waitress drops checks to tables at a club on an 11pm show on a Tuesday that has twelve(!!) people for an unknown amount of years after performing at open mics and similarly attended bar shows for as many years as you get minutes at that club. You have to really want it in NYC and, I think, generally have to work incredibly hard to get nowhere or to become an “industry darling” where I think it’s a bit easier to be plucked out of the sea of comedians in the UK as a two year comic who might be able to make agents, directors, PR people, reviewers, venues, and, at the end of that list, hopefully yourself, some money and end up in a position of “getting somewhere” a bit faster. In NYC, it’s harder and takes longer and a lot more hours at the craft to make money or “get anywhere,” but when you do, you know you’ve earned it.
There’s a pretty big divide between newer comics and ones working the circuit in the UK versus NYC in that, when I started comedy in New York, I would often see comics who were working clubs or on tour stop by at open mics or bar shows to work on their material because that’s where they can try stuff out whereas in London, there are “new material nights” where you can be paid to bomb your new stuff in front of an entire audience if you are a pro or “semi-pro” and going to an open mic is unheard of if you’re in that bracket. The term “semi-pro” wasn’t in my vocabulary in NYC, and you don’t have “progression spots” there, you either get “passed” at the club to work for free or for paid spots or you get booked on tour.

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“Bringer shows” in NYC are typically run by a producer who can convince a brand new comedian to bring 5 of their friends at $25 a head and a two drink minimum to watch them do comedy for the second time at a major club and give you a tape of you on stage as a token of the experience whereas “bringer” and “stayer” shows in the UK exist for open mics where brand new comics are forced to bring a friend and stay for the whole show as hostages to watch people they see do comedy all the time do their jokes again and are asked to donate money at the end. Open mics in NYC are sometimes free but often are pay to play with an amount that either goes to the bar/person running the mic so 18 comics can go up and do two minutes of material to exclusively other comedians and maybe the odd friend or partner of a wannabe comic who has accidentally wandered into this hellscape, none of whom are listening because the comics are thinking about their own sets and leave immediately when they’re done to get to the next mic or show and the accidental audience are reflecting on the bad karma they must have accrued to end up here.
At the clubs in New York, you pretty much have to be on all the time and one bad night might cost you work at that club indefinitely. London is a bit more forgiving in that you can have an off night but if it’s not a regular thing, you can still get work and proven good sets will outweigh the bad. You don’t run the light in NYC ever, when they light you, you get off even if you’re booked to do 10 and they light you at 3, you wrap it up and if you don’t, that might be the end of your time there and if they’re lighting you at 3, it probably already is. In London, clubs are generous with people who consistently go over their time regardless if it messes up their show times. I’ve seen some staff in clubs in London bend over backwards to accommodate the whims of some comedians (famous or those who act like they are but are not) whereas there are clubs in NYC where you will get banned from working there if you order the food when you’re there to perform.
I know this isn’t a nice answer, but it is a real one. A lot of this system is somewhat unfair and broken regardless of where you are trying to become a stand up, and I’m not saying I know how to fix it, but this is one person’s experience of the way it is in the two places you asked about, haha. It only gets more whacky because now, with the age of the internet following, you can do all that I have mentioned and follow all the “rules” but if you don’t have a presence online, it basically doesn’t even matter and if you have a presence online, you don’t have to be funny to be headlining all over the world a couple years into comedy.
What about other stuff, life stuff, how are you finding living in the UK as an American?People seem to really like my accent. I’ve really appreciated having health care, regardless of the flaws the system might have that I have overheard people moaning about. I really like how green it is here. I haven’t quite gotten used to the idea of feeling like I am in some part of a class system but maybe as an American, that’s my out of that one.

Can you tell us about “This American Irish Life?”Well, I met my husband Mark in Edinburgh in 2019 and we knew pretty quickly that we were going to be together. We started recording in January 2020 when he and I decided to try things out together in London from New York and Ireland and were going to go to do the comedy festivals in Australia together in March of that year and record a podcast about traveling to new places, starting a new relationship, and being comedians. Covid struck pretty quickly after we started recording and we kept recording when we got stuck in Melbourne for six months in their Covid lockdown and throughout all else we went through during the pandemic so the podcast evolved (de-evolved?) into what I can only describe as a highly unusual study of psychology.
You’re doing three shows this Fringe, can you tell us about them?Married At First Fight is a split show between my husband Mark and I where we each do a comedy set and let the audience decide who is the funniest at the end of the show and we maybe or not get divorced.
Ew Girl, You Nasty is my hour that I have brought to the Fringe a few times but would say this version of it is its final as I consider working on another show. I’m a bit American when it comes to writing shows in that I will take years to write a new one as opposed to coming up with a new one every year. It’s impressive for those who can do it (a noteworthy comic who does being Nathan Cassidy) but the idea gives me heart palpitations and I’ll finally stop doing this show when I feel enough people have actually seen it.
Filthy Funny Females is an all female line-up that delivers mostly on female, hopefully on funny, and filthy if we feel like it.
Why three, why all that punishment?This is my job, haha.
Which of the shows do you recommend a punter sees first, y’know, the gateway show, & why?Ew Girl, You Nasty seems to be shocking to a lot of people so you might as well come to that first and if your senses aren’t shook, the rest will be a cake walk.
You’ve got 20 seconds to sell yourself to strangers on the streets of Edinburgh, what do you say?I want to quit comedy to become a shaman so this might be the last chance you’ll get to see me.

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BUY TICKETS
Married at First Fight
Bar 50 – The AlcoveAug 3-14, 16-27 (16:45)

Ew Girl, You Nasty
Cabaret VoltaireAug 3-14, 16-27 (19:30)

Filthy Funny Females
The Three SistersAug 3-14, 16-27 (21:30)
www.ewgirlyounasty.com
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