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Comedy is a dirty job for Katrina Brown
By John Benson
Among the 50 shades of comedian Katrina Brown is a lot of blue.
That is, this Canton-based funny lady, who bills herself as the Mutant Queen of Ohio Comedy, promises she calls it like she sees it. This means there’s a certain amount of raunchiness to her stand-up in the form of swearing and such.
“Some people freak out,” said Brown, calling from Canton. “I have some people who don’t like to hear swearing. But then I can’t figure out what they’re doing at a comedy show.”
Brown, who returns to the Youngstown area Saturday for a show at the Funny Farm, which is in the new Hotel California in Austintown, said she has the utmost respect for clean comics. As for being a blue comedian, the comic said her material mirrors real life, which she believes is, well, dirty. Therefore, in her opinion, the material has a sense of authenticity.
“We’re stuck in a rut right now in society that everybody feels like crap no matter what age, size, gender they are,” Brown said. “We’re all just assaulted with images on why we suck. We should all just put a bag over our head and hide in a cave, and it’s unfortunate because I’m of the opinion everyone has their own idea of beauty and attractiveness.
“Now, I’ve kind of shifted my set to be more of an unofficial sex therapist. I don’t have a degree, but it does at times feel like humor therapy for people.”
So it sounds like if couples are having troubles in the sack, at the very least Brown will make them laugh. She may even have a few insights.
“I think so, it’s funny and it’s all very personal,” Brown said. “I don’t make up anything on stage. I just speak from my observations. People feel comfortable talking to me. I’m always amazed at what people don’t know about their own bodies or how uptight we all still are in 2015 about who we are and the need for validation in others.
“I kind of set the tone, like you don’t need that. You can be who you are and hold your head high and not worry about what other people are thinking. And that sounds very much like therapy, but there’s humor intertwined with all of it.”
Being a female comedian, Brown said there’s often a misconception regarding the source of her humor. She said audiences often assume her set is going to be all man-bashing and feminazi with tons of whining and complaining.
Brown said her material is quite the opposite, with her ultimate objective to elicit an aphrodisiac response.
When it’s pointed out she’s sort of like the “Fifty Shades of Grey” of comedy, Brown didn’t care for the comparison. It turned out the trashy novel and its recently released movie is an easy target for Brown.
“That book is crap,” Brown said. “I actually make fun of the book on stage. ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is one of the reasons why I knew I had to speak out because that popularity of that book is obvious: women are desperate to be told it’s OK to be sexual creatures and they attach to that piece of crap.”