By Adam Aasen
Katie Hannigan always knew she wanted to perform on stage.
But she didn’t know she’d be alone on stage – just her and a microphone and her jokes.
After graduating from Butler University, Hannigan moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a serious theatre actor. The Warren Central graduate had started taking theatre classes at age seven.
But it wasn’t until she was 23 that she decided to give stand-up comedy a try and discovered a new profession.
Hannigan will be returning home to central Indiana to perform at Morty’s Comedy Joint with a 30-minute feature set before comedian Donnie Baker on June 26, 27 and 28.
Since starting out in stand-up in 2008, she has been featured on MTV, CollegeHumor.com and the 2014 Laughing Skull Comedy Festival. She also appeared alongside Gilbert Gottfried in the 2012 short, “Gilbert Gottfried reads 50 Shades of Grey.”
Current recently spoke to her about her upcoming show.
What’s the difference about performing in Indiana as opposed to performing in New York?
Both are great in different ways. New York has a lot of alternative shows where you can go and do something a little different and maybe perform as a character. There are definitely a lot more clubs you can perform almost any night of the week if you really want. The clubs in Times Square or other venues in that kind of scope have a lot of tourists and so the sets there might be more similar to what I would do on the road where it’s my usual stand-up set. I love coming back home to perform because the people in Indiana are so welcoming and the Hoosier side of things is just great.
Are you expecting a lot of friends to come out for your show?
I hope so! Actually my 10-year high school reunion is in July and I won’t be able to go. So that’s OK, but hopefully some people from my high school can come and we can have a mini-reunion.
Are you treated any differently as a female comedian?
The general consensus is being a woman is a lot easier because you might get noticed a lot easier and you might stick out because there are fewer women. But I don’t think I ever got any opportunities just because I was a woman. Some people might be a little harder on female comedians, especially if you are this cute little girl doing gross-out humor.
When people find out you do stand-up, do they ever act weird?
I don’t even tell people that often anymore because I just can’t deal with it. I’ll tell women, but guys can be weird. I’m single now and I’m dating. Last year I went through a break-up. So my friends talked me into signing up for Tinder (an online dating site) and whenever these guys asked what I did for a living and I told them the guys kept trying to one-up me, one after another. I think men have an interesting response to funny women where they feel the need to be funnier than me. Hey, I’m not on the clock. Let’s just have a glass of wine and talk about our families and stuff.
Is there anything that drives you crazy that other comedians do?
I don’t really like low-energy performers. Maybe it’s because I come from a theatre background but if you love comedy, show some energy! If you are going to be low-energy you have to have really well-written material.
