Mary Poppins’ refrain of a “spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” is, unknowingly, a core function of comedy. The underlying philosophies and messages from a comedian are often dissolved into the sweetness of their well-crafted jokes. That said, many a comedian these days opt out of the sugar-quality of comedy and instead decide to serve their medicine/message with a generous portion of even more sour tasting medicine.
DeAnne Smith is and has long been a bright and shining example of the former as they employ their preternatural warmth and extremely keen joke writing chops to actually explore those “pesky” modern day identity politics of gender, sexuality, and what to do when running into Jon Hamm. Such nuanced depth is thankfully caught on digital wax on their latest release, the perfectly titled Chiweenie In A Tank Top.
Recorded live at the Curious Comedy Theater in Portland, OR, DeAnne gave an extensive tour of so many spectrums (and even joyfully ribbed what was a very open-minded crowd). Pronouns, feminism, hotness, the death penalty, writing a joke about the death penalty, and more highly debatable are dissected with aplomb. What’s intriguing is that Smith doesn’t necessarily present this an hour of comedy necessarily as an answer for every debate, but, instead gives a hysterical account of their life and how they’re faring in a world that’s (thankfully) continuing to evolve. That’s definitely a sweeter angle to play than joking about what one clearly thinks is explicitly capital G and B, good and bad.
Essentially, the message here is that spectrums don’t have to be frustrating and can be a beautiful thing if you feel lost, in between, or outside of the “norm”. Just think about that in regards to the title, Chiweenie In A Tank Top (a great line lifted from this very lovely, affirming hour of stand-up).
DeAnne Smith’s Chiweenie In A Tank Top is now streaming pretty much everywhere you get your comedy albums. Listen in here.