See also: Pete Holmes on the High Plains Comedy Festival and Silver Linings
Westword: So you were one of the stand-out performers at the fest last year. What made you decide to return this year?
Kate Berlant: Oh, man, it was so fun. Of course I was so happy to come back. It's been great to be able to come out to Denver more in the last few years than I had ever had before. It's so fun there, everybody just puts stuff on. It's a little bit of a utopia.
How has High Plains compared to other festivals where you've performed?
I think that High Plains is smaller and more localized in terms of -- I don't know how to compare it to something like South by Southwest, which is bigger but not as fun. It's always fun to do festivals with your friends. It feels like you get to just go hang out. You get to do shows for crowds that are super into it.
Yeah, it doesn't take over the whole city and everybody kind of knows everybody.
Yeah, it's so nice. So ideal.
So, in the course of doing research for this interview, I came across a lot of think pieces where people try really hard to find a way to describe what you're doing and not coming up with much. Does that ever get frustrating, or is it just nice to be written about?
No, it's nice. It's not frustrating at all. I've always been into confusion. I think ideally, my goal is just to have people respond positively to what I'm doing; whether or not they're describing it is not the point, I think. I'm always just flattered that anyone wants to know what I'm doing, or tries to understand. Because I myself don't really know. I mean, I have feelings and ideas about what I'm doing, but I can't put them into words for other people, or myself.
I'd despair of having to describe your performance style, too -- but it's certainly not the traditional set-up/punchline joke structure. I guess structure doesn't even enter into it. See? I'm failing at descriptions right now.
I also always feel ridiculous --I'm not trying to say, "Yeah, I just really can't be put into words," because I'm doing something so hyper-radical that language fails it. But I understan, though, obviously, that it can be hard to communicate.
Maybe the vocabulary doesn't exist for it yet? Standup is still pretty married to the roots of the form, you know? Its traditions are really apparent, so it's interesting to see how people respond when you don't follow that old, like Catskills rhythm.
Yeah, totally.
You've opened for Father John Misty on tour recently. Were you the only comic opening for him, and how did his crowds respond to you?
That was like a real tour, a month of being on the road every night. I just opened for another musician recently, but the Father John Misty tour was so much fun. Just pure euphoria. It was my first time really being on the road and doing a show every single night in a different city. I was so overwhelmed by the experience of being taken out of everyday life and only really needing to focus on the show that night. So that was great. And his crowds were great. I was nervous.
Going into it, I was prepared to bomb a lot. I just assumed that would be a natural part of it. And that was okay. I'm sort of comfortable with silence. I'm not as dependent on the constant laughter. Of course, I want laughter as much as anybody else does, but I was pleasantly surprised. There were only a couple shows where it didn't go that well, but it was nothing Biblical, you know? I was fully expecting to be systematically abused and broken down by the end of the month. But Josh [Tillman aka Father John Misty] is so funny and his music is completely about humor, so it made sense. His crowds were receptive.
How has your experience with music crowds compared to typical comedy club audiences?
I mean, that's where I usually am. It's never really a problem. I find it more when I have friends at a show sitting in the audience, they'll tell me afterwards that someone was like, "What the fuck is she doing?" Going in front of crowds that consume a lot of comedy can be great because as comedy fans, they're ostensibly there to laugh.
Comedy nerds are more likely to be excited by something new and different.
Yeah, so I think sometimes it's nice to offer a break from what they're used to. I didn't go into standup trying to -- I don't necessarily think that anyone gets into it thinking, "I'm going to mix things up!" I don't know, maybe they do. It's weird; it's so hard to talk about without seeming like...
A bit of a wonk having a bit of a wank? I get it. But at some point, you had to become aware that you were veering away from a pretty established formula.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've been sort of pleasantly surprised. I guess I've been lucky to never feel like people were wondering if whether what I was doing was even comedy or not. So, I think that in both situations, for example sometimes with music crowds there are people who have never seen live comedy before. That can also be really great. When they don't really have any expectations?
Yeah, completely. And I perform pretty regularly in art environments. There's such an interest in comedy now within the art world. There's more crossover. It's kind of strange suggesting that the crossover hasn't always been there, but I guess with the popularity of standup in general now, you're seeing it pop up in all these alternate venues.
Let me know if I'm just completely failing to answer your questions. I know haven't spilled any secrets, but it's not like I'm sitting on some gorgeous announcement.
Keep reading for more from Kate Berlant.
