Elicia Sanchez Q&A

The Seattle comic came back for the 4th annual All Jane Comedy Fest, but things have changed.

Elicia Sanchez is the truth. Or so says the noted San Francisco comedian turned CNN writers W. Kamau Bell. Hailing from Seattle, Sanchez has been plying her comic trade across the West Coast since 2010. Returning to Portland for her third All Jane festival, Sanchez took some time to talk to Willamette Week about the Seattle comedy scene, inclusivity in comedy, and all the things she loves about an all-female comedy festival.

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Willamette Week: This will be your third All Jane. What keeps bringing you back?

Elicia Sanchez: I love the festival so much, it's my favorite. I keep thinking, especially this year, that they're not going to have me back because I did that last two and I'm not from that far away from Portland. I'm not that important to come out to Portland, because I'm up here in Seattle. I always think that maybe this year they'll be like, "no you did it last year," and they won't let me come back, but they have. And I'm really excited because I love the festival. It's so much fun.

Do you play a lot of festivals?

I've done some comedy in large music festivals. I don't travel to do that many festivals outside of the Northwest because I don't have the money or time to do that. But I really love Bridgetown, I've done that a couple times. I do Bumbershoot in Seattle, and that's really fun. But All Jane really stands out to me because it's really kind of specific in what it is with the performers that they have. It's a small group of performers so you can really get to know everyone. The after parties are amazing. Of the festivals I've done, I find it the most fun, especially the down time.

Do you encounter a lot of comics that know about All Jane, specifically comics outside of the Northwest?

I know everyone in Seattle knows about it. I feel like people are familiar with it, other comics I know in New York, Boston, and Chicago know about it, and they've done it before. I've actually been able to meet those friends because of All Jane. They're really stoked on it and they go home at tell people about it.

You talked about All Jane having a very specific focus. There was an effort to me more inclusive with the festival's name change. Being a veteran of the festival, do you have an opinion on the name change?

I think the issue that people had, obviously not that stupid MRA guy, was that the name of the festival was trans-phobic and trans-misogynist, and it seems like that can be hard for people when they are trying to carve out spaces for women that sometimes they can exclude trans women in the language of that, and that's not good.

I was really happy that they changed the name, even though I totally love the festival and I don't think that they ever had intentions for that to be trans-misogynist in any way, I did feel a level of discomfort wearing the merchandise from the festival, even though I love it and wanted to talk about it more. I personally always called it "All Jane" to my friends.

The best part is—and I don't know that they'll ever open it to people who are not gender binary—that you're just not surrounded by straight cis guys, and that's cool, especially in a comedy scenario. We had so many moments the first year I did it in the green room where we had a realization all sitting together that this is the first time I've been in a comedy situation where we're just all women. We joked that we were going to start talking about our periods, and then we literally did start talking about periods for like twenty minutes. It was really funny.

Sometimes you get this feeling from certain cis-straight male comics where you feel like you have to be certain way so they'll be like you're one of the guys, you're not like an overly sensitive girl. There's comfort for me where I don't feel like I have to be like I'm funny, I'm here, I exist, I matter, or whatever.

According to Stacey Hallal, in Portland a lot more women start comedy each year than men, but most don't continue with it. Is that something you see if Seattle too?

Definitely you see more women starting and coming out to open mics in Seattle, but I don't see them sticking with it as much. Women are treated more critically. It's already hard to do comedy. You're putting yourself on the line to be constantly told you're not good enough. Things are better than they used to be when I started five years ago, but women are treated more critically, it's harder for them to deal with that on top of other newer comics who hit on them and say inappropriate shit to them all the time. That's something that I didn't deal with as much when I started, but I know tons of people that do, and I hear stories about that constantly. It's awful and you don't want to put up with it. It's too much stress. You start thinking comedy is going to be fun. You go up thinking that this is a lot of fun to be a part of, and then you have to deal with all the extra, constant criticism. In Seattle there's a small community of queer and trans people of color doing comedy now, but we had to carve out spaces for that because it was hard to get people to stick with it. Having to deal with always being the butt of jokes when you go to shows, and the way you're treated, and the way you're intro-ed at comedy shows, it gets really tired. If you don't want to be like, "this is my calling, this is my job that I want to have now," then it's easy to go, "this is my hobby and it's not fun. I'm out of here."

In general, what is the comedy scene in Seattle like right now?

Right now a lot of comedy shows that do well are variety shows. I think it's because the audiences here are so cynical. They're really more interested in music and theater, and things like that. If it's not a show at a comedy club, so people are going out specifically to see stand-up, it's easier to incorporate other stuff like sketches and storytelling and music. When comedy shows do that they tend to do better and get better followings. We're still kind of growing. The city's so big, and there are so many different kinds of comics here. There are so club comics, and then comics that do casino work and non-profit work, and that's a whole other level of comics. There are a lot of alt comics doing their own thing. Right now the thing I'm most excited about that there is an actual small community of queer people of color here that are running their own shows, and I'm seeing that grow. That community is super strong and the comics are great and doing a lot of great things. I'm excited to those shows get big audiences.

GO: The All Jane Comedy Festival is at Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 Northeast Martin Luther King Junior Blvd., alljanecomedy.org. Wednesday-Sunday, Oct 14-18. Shows are $10-15. Festival Pass $60.

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