Last year in Grand Rapids, LaughFest debuted a new, unique festival organized around the simple mantra of laughing for the health of it. It was fun, witty and for a couple weeks, this town discovered our funny bone.
The city also discovered en masse that we have a very vibrant comic community, as local comedienne and LaughFest 2011 performer Sarah Jean Anderson loves to point out.
On Monday night, after TEDxGrandRapids shared the news of their 2012 event, I dashed to meet Anderson in the only private, quiet space I could find at Dog Story Theater on their wildly popular Comics Monday Night: the bathroom. She is also launching something new -- a one-woman show slated for Nov. 25.
Last summer at Dog Story Theater, Anderson debuted her first one-woman, sold-out show with a collection of her favorite characters created over the years, but with one new addition.
Instead of just focusing on the observational comic path some take while exploring the ironic or obvious, Anderson has been responding to the bigger questions surrounding her recent divorce.
So, the first show was a hilarious look at a woman who was married under the spotlight, only to exit from her marriage naked and on the high that many of our creatives live daily. Call it the by-product of a small town with big city issues in a YouTube Era where everything is seen and often moments after it occurs.
The pain in the first show was summed up in classic Anderson style. She decided to stop answering questions about her husband by simply stating, “He fell down 'a well.’”
Of course, for those of us who attended this show, we know that “the well” was a metaphor for the giant, well, you-know-what of the woman her husband was cheating on her with during their marriage.
It was painfully funny, but she is moving on in part two of the four-part comedy cycle Anderson is projecting to produce over the next year.
“We are in my autumn phase,” says Anderson, in between courtesy flushes to punctuate her point. “I am having a lot of sex to purify my body.”
When I asked if she is still dating a member of her band, she pauses as if to determine which one.
“Oh, him!” she shouts. “No. Well, I was. I mean, he is like an appetizer. I have had a lot of appetizers on the side, with only one main dish right now.”
And the main dish she refuses to give up, only to say he is a Russian Jew, who she knows is going to leave her since he is not looking to stick around in the G.
“So, do you know when he is leaving?” I ask.
“Probably as soon as I miss my period,” Anderson says, as she laughs. Flush.
At the Nov. 25 show, Anderson will present a new monologue exploring in ways only she can express and in words my editor would only let me write on a bathroom wall.
She will present many of her very entertaining characters created over the years including Little Girl Marisa, Rita’s Heroes and a special Ask Mabel Teen Corner featuring her granddaughter, Chardonnay Williams played by Marci Stembol, an actress performing her comic debut on this night.
Missing from the new show will be Alice the poet, who brought the house down with her poetry reading at the Plainfield Burger King.
The sketch, which ends with Anderson performing Alice’s poem, "Ma Ma Ma My Vagina" (with her backup band, The Chinese People, adding The Knack’s "My Sharona"), was delivered so rapid-fire and so on the comic mark that before she could finish, the entire audience was on its feet, applauding. (Editor’s Note: I was there, it was incredible.)
Anderson had never received such a response in her entire career, admitting to me at that moment that she actually “peed a little in her panties” as she jumped up and down.
“Tim Motley caught this moment in a photograph,” Anderson says. “You know the face where you are so happy you peed, but you hope no one else noticed. Oh, shit, I just told you. Now you know that face.”
“I want people to know that I really do like clean comedy and have many comics who I love in this town for what they are able to do within this framework,” she adds. “It's just for me, well, I'm a dirty girl so I prefer to be blue. I think that's why I am funny. [It's] that I can talk about things that others would not talk about. Being blue is just who I feel comfortable being, since I am thinking these thoughts or seeing the world in this fashion.”
If you're the type of person who is easily offended, “blue comedy” -- the term used to describe the more randy of comedy -- is probably not the style of comedy for you, which is fine with Anderson, who had to turn away folks at the last show due to a lack of available seats.
It is not surprising that she reveals that anyone who gets up to leave in the middle of her show better be prepared to be called out from the stage, often shouting in her innocent, yet biting way. “Thanks for coming. Everybody, wave. Goodbye!”
There's something really refreshing about being in Anderson’s company, even if it’s only in a crowded bathroom. She is a rare comic in our town who is not afraid of making fun of herself, addressing the huge following she has with “the gays,” or sharing with the audience in full graphic detail how she broke not one, but two vibrators.
Anderson lives her life like she is on the stage, whether on it or not. Anderson is not about having many boundaries, which is a reason one might think poses a problem for her when it comes to dating.
“It has to be hard to date you since any man who dates you knows that you pull such intimate details from your life for comic material,” I say. “Do you make them sign a contract?”
“The moment they ‘sleep with’ me, that’s their release!” she replies.
There is no greater joy for a comic than being recognized on the street for something they performed in their act.
This is no different for Anderson as people often walk up to her and say, “I hope your ex-husband is alright after falling down the well," punctuating it with a big wink.
“And yet there are others who yell at me as I walk down the street,” Anderson says, “’Hey, Vagina Girl!’”
For Sarah Jean “walk the talk” Anderson, being a blue comic means you're not only colorful on the stage, but that your life is played out in real-time living color.
LaughFest returns to Grand Rapids March 8-18 including names like Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Short, Kevin Nealon, Mike Epps, Rodney Carrington and Jim Gaffigan. Ticket packages go on sale Nov. 18. At press time, no dates for Anderson have been announced, but if it doesn’t sound like your furry cup of tea, there's always Sinbad.
The Future Needs All of Us (To Cha Cha Cha Chuckle)
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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