Jessica Kirson’s Therapy-Enhanced Comedy
A lifetime's worth of exposure to therapy has helped give Jessica Kirson's comedy a distinctive edge.
“I’m working on a book about my life — being the daughter of a therapist, growing up with my mother who saw clients in the house, which is really funny and deep. And, you know, pretty intense.”
Therapy has shaped the contours of Jessica Kirson’s life, not to mention her style of stand-up comedy. Which makes total sense, given that the New Jersey-reared Kirson had been following along dutifully in her mother’s footsteps to become a therapist herself.
“I was going to school to get a master’s in social work at NYU,” Kirson says. One night, while out to dinner with her family, “I was telling a story and they were all laughing. And my grandmother called me over and said, ‘You need to be a standup comedian.'” Kirson thought the idea was preposterous. But her grandmother said, “Trust me: I’m your grandmother. I know these things. Every time you’re sitting with people, since you were a young child, you’ve been making them laugh.”
Shortly thereafter, Kirson stumbled on an ad for a crash course in stand-up comedy, culminating in a performance at a New York City club. She decided to give it a go. “And here I am 23 years later,” despite a perpetual bout of stage fright.
“I get very nervous to perform,” she says. “And I do believe, if there’s a time when you’re not nervous at all, that’s when you have to worry. I think the nerves drive an artist to do better.”
Over the years, the lesbian comic has become something of a master at putting her nerves to work in service of her comedy, which is further enhanced with dramatic — and edgy — flourishes devised from a lifetime’s worth of exposure to therapy, the most distinctive of which involves Kirson turning around to give strained voice to her inner monologue.
“The only way that works is when a joke doesn’t [land] right, or if it’s uncomfortable in the room, or if I feel uncomfortable — that’s when I turn around and start talking to myself,” Kirson explains.
“My favorite thing is when I turn around and someone’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind and I’m having a mental breakdown.” That’s become a fan favorite, too. “There are people that love when I do that — they love watching people that don’t get it. It makes them laugh even harder.”
Jessica Kirson appears Saturday, Oct. 15, and Sunday, Oct. 16, at Crazy Aunt Helen’s, 713 8th St. SE.
Tickets are $25. Visit www.crazyaunthelens.com or call 202-750-8140.
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